Mesa Swap Meet and Super Bowl Sunday

I have been mistakenly calling the Mesa Market Place Swap Meet a flea market all this time ... sorry 'bout that !!

We had no idea how large this place is.  Over 55 acres with over 1600 vendors.

The parking lot was a zoo !  Once inside we began browsing the many shops.

One thing we noticed right away was there are a number of vendors selling the same kind of merchandise.

We made our way through the crowds, and bought a few items, including a very nice wind chime for our motorhome.

We spent almost 3 hours there, and by the end I was completely shopped out, and began losing interest rapidly.

I think Teresa could sense that, and she suggested we come back some other time.  Alrighty then.

We arrived back at the resort, just in time for the Super Bowl party. 

The resort provided free beer and wine, and some appies, and the bowling team was selling hotdogs for a dollar.

My bride and I are not big NFL'ers, but we got to meet some friendly folks and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Today is Teresa's birthday, but we decided to celebrate it tomorrow, because everything was busy for the big game.

We are going to check out some other parks in the area, then we will enjoy a restaurant meal together.

Should be lots of fun !!

Happy Hour with Fellow Bloggers

We had another great sleep last night.  It really cools down after sunset, which contributes to a wonderful snooze.

We enjoyed our coffee in bed, then headed out for a couple laps around the park, which takes about 45 minutes.

We have been looking forward to this day since we arrived in this area.  We used to follow a Canadian couple who were new to the fulltiming lifestyle.

Knowing that they loved the Apache Junction area, I took a long-shot and emailed them to see if they were still around here.

Yes, indeed they were, and they extended an invitation to us to meet up at their park for a visit today.

Teresa put a cheese and cracker and pickle platter together, and I grabbed a couple of drinks as we headed out to find them.

We instantly felt comfortable meeting Dave and Lise, and I am afraid we bombarded them with questions about this lifestyle.

They patiently answered all our questions, and gave us helpful advice on a variety of subjects.

We had a great time visiting with this wonderful couple, and I can say for sure we will be meeting up with them again.

On the way home from our too short visit, Teresa kept saying what a good time she had, and how much she enjoyed herself.  Great, because I did too.

We have plans to visit the Mesa Flea Market tomorrow, plus our resort is putting on a Super Bowl party, including free drinks.

Let the game begin !!

An Awesome Day

Wow, what a great day we had today.

We had heard of a scenic drive only a few miles away, that also included a stop for a hike.

We easily found the Apache Trail, and our first stop was at the Lost Dutchman State Park.

We decided to try the Siphon Draw Trail, as it leads up into the Superstition Mountains towards the Flatiron.

We had on our sunscreen, and were equipped with lots of water, so off we headed.

Whew, it was all uphill, and soon the sweat was forming.  I think I was a little more winded than Teresa, but hey, I weigh almost fifty pounds more.

The view from the basin was worth the hard work.

Downhill was a little quicker, but you really had to watch your footing, because of loose rocks everywhere.

Once back to our car, we headed out again further along the Apache Trail.

Our next stop was Canyon Lake.  This is a man made lake formed when a dam was built in the 1920's.

It was a real treat to see water in the middle of the desert.  We saw boaters and fishermen, all enjoying the wonderful weather.

Back in the car, we found ourselves on one of the twistiest highways ever.  Some of the turns were true hairpins, where we would have to slow down to 15 mph. 

The views were amazing, although my eyes were glued to the road.

Our last stop on this road was the famous Tortilla Flats tourist stop.

We spent some time looking around and shopping at the gift shop, before heading to the saloon.

Yep, those are saddles that you sit on at the bar, and yep, those are dollar bills stuck on the wall.

In fact our server said they have 100,000 bills on those walls.

Well, now they can say 100,001 bills !

After a great meal ( we recommend the chili burger ), and a couple of cold ones on tap, we headed for home.

Just our luck, we got back to the resort in time for happy hour, including a free drink each.

We will remember this day for a long time.

Scouting out Apache Junction

This morning after our coffee time, Teresa suggested we start going for some brisk walks, to help with our tight fitting clothes.

This resort is quite large, and it takes a little over 20 minutes to walk the perimeter, which we did twice. 

After that 40 minute workout, we grabbed another coffee each, and relaxed in our favorite loungers on our patio. 

We decided we needed to buy a few things, so we headed out after lunch.

I think we probably stopped at a half dozen or so stores, and we never got home until supper.

One of our best purchases, was a digital antenna for "over the air" TV.  The park we are in does not have cable for anything less than a monthly stay.

I was very skeptical that an antenna would work for us, since we are in a rural area.

Imagine my surprise when we discovered we could get nearly 30 channels, in brilliant digital quality.  Amazing ...

Now, if only there was something good to watch ... lol.

Up on the roof

Today was another wonderful weather day.

It must be easy to be a weather forecaster here in Arizona.

Everyday is mid 70's, sunny, with no chance of rain.

Teresa and I had another long walk through the resort, and stumbled upon another open house.

We toured some coach houses, where you can park your RV in a covered port, with an attached house.

There were some very nice houses, but not something we are interested in just yet.

Still, we had a hot dog lunch, including wine and beer, and a great singer provided some fun entertainment.

Those are the Superstition Mountains

Later in the afternoon, Teresa headed off to the laundromat while I scurried up on our roof.

I noticed that some of the caulking was getting kind of old and brittle, so I decided to tackle part of the chore of scraping out all the old stuff, in order to reseal the seams with new caulking.

Teresa came home, just as I was coming down the ladder, as I had enough fun for one day.

She mentioned that this laundry room was the cleanest and largest she had seen to date.

Hopefully, tomorrow if I get the roof resealed, we can venture outside of this nice resort.

Enjoying Canyon Vistas Resort

We enjoyed a nice relaxed morning of coffee and talking in the brilliant Arizona sunshine.

After lunch we decided to walk around the resort. 

We noticed they had some open houses on park models, so we spent an hour or so with a sales lady.

She said that eventually, most of these parks will be converted to all park models.  That was news to us.

We continued touring the grounds, and chatting with folks from all over the US and Canada.  We even found one couple that lives in our hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan.

We arrived back to our rolling home, in time to enjoy an adult beverage as the sun was setting.

It was another wonderful day in the desert.

Gold Canyon AZ

After another great night of sleep, we woke to blue skies and sunny weather.

I think the high was in the mid 70's today, but it feels much hotter than that in the sun.

We had an easy drive from Tucson today, in fairly light traffic.

The views in Arizona are wonderful.  It seems there is a mountain range every time the highway turns.

After only a couple of short hours, we arrived at Canyon Vistas, a Cal-Am resort.

We got set up, and immediately neighbours started welcoming us to the neighborhood.

In fact, we went for a short walk to see the pool and hot tub, and never got back to our rig for nearly three hours.

Why ... because we met so many wonderful folks that could tell we were new, and were anxious to share their secret hikes and spots we must see.

Well, as you can tell, the next two weeks at this resort will probably go by pretty quickly ... LOL.