A Fun Couple of Days Before Heading Further West.

Today  (after spending two good weeks here) we roll out of Gold Canyon; heading west towards southern California.  Gold Canyon (and Canyon Vista RV Resort) did not disappoint. It never does! In fact, we were kept quite busy visiting with friends, enjoying visits to truly nice tourist spots (Bio Sphere, Arboretum, Lake Roosevelt, Jakes Corner, Winkelman, Eloy, Florence, Globe, Buckeye, etc.) and joining other motorcycle friends on some nice rides in the countryside.

6 motorcycles and 10 riders: At a humongous mine site.

Yesterday was our final Arizona ride of the season, with eight other riders.  Our route took us through Superior, Winkelman, Globe and back.  The countryside was stunning.

Riding in mid-70's temperatures....other than at high elevations.

We never tire from riding in this great countryside.

Five hours of riding in topography that constantly changes.

Arriving back in Gold Canyon, Fritz and Bonnie (Iowa friends) invited the group to their site for refreshments.  

Enjoying happy hour in the late afternoon sun.

Fritz and Bonnie will be joining us - and a group of motorcyclists from Yuma and Palm Springs - on a three day, mid-March, southern California ride.  The planning has already begun. And we look forward to that ride.

Our Friday tour with friends, Pauline and Gerry.

 Click on this link for in depth details:  Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Home

Every imaginable desert plant - from every corner of the globe - can be seen here.

Nice barrel cacti

Most interesting rock formations

A small lake that is also used to water the plants.

Spires of all types and shapes.

It takes a good couple of hours to walk the main route around the arboretum.

There are many trails here.  One can easily spend the entire day to browse every plant that grows here.  The walking trails are well groomed and easy to walk. 

Strategically placed benches offer nice views.

Only about 15 minutes east and north from Gold Canyon, this little gem is a worthwhile visit for anyone.

This would present a tough climb, even for the fittest.

Yes, there are creeks in the dessert.

Our two weeks here come to a close today.  And it has been a fun-filled time. Going forward, our journey now takes us further west.  By Monday evening, we will be well set up in Caliente Springs RV Resort, in Desert Hot Springs, CA; mere minutes from the southern California desert cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio and more.  We'll report from there in the days ahead.

A special thanks to all the friends who winter in the Phoenix area.  We look forward to meeting up the next time we park ourselves here.

Thanks for dropping in.

Tonto, Roosevelt, Jakes Corner....

Thursday produced a mid-70's F day; made perfect for a nice motorcycle ride with like minded friends.  We left Canyon Vista @ 10:30 am.

Riders:  L-R  Me, Jeanette, Bonnie & Fritz (Iowa) Lavonne & Dave (Iowa) and Gordie (Wisconsin)

The photo above was taken at the overlook near the Roosevelt Dam, overlooking Roosevelt Lake.

(Click on the following link for more detailed information)  

 Roosevelt Lake Arizona | Roosevelt Dam | Location, Map, Directions

Walkway to viewing area at Roosevelt Dam.

Very low water level

The topography here is stunning.  The mountains (taking us to elevations over 4,500 feet), are ever changing.  The spires and formations are beautiful to view - especially on motorcycle.  These great highways and secondary roads (east, north and west) from Phoenix had us enjoying the changing landscapes.It is a beautiful part of the world, that's for certain.

Great roads.....

.....great rock formations.....

....fun curves.....

......big sky....

.....beautiful Roosevelt Lake....

....nice engineering....

.....great friends.....

.....shared stories....

....so many angles to view the horizon from....

....follow the leader....

.....quenching our thirst.....

...imagining stories that led to bras and panties hanging in the trees here......

...quenching our thirst after a hard ride....(well, not very hard)..

.....and closing the evening with a happy hour at our RV site, here in Canyon Vista.

We enjoyed a long motorcycle ride, on a beautiful day....but after rolling back into our RV site, everyone came over for happy hour and chat.   Our propane fireplace warded off the early evening desert cold that quickly forms once the sun goes down.

By 8:00 pm, our guests were gone, the fire was out and we settled indoors. 

Our Langley, BC grand kids (Brie and Easton) Face Timed us, last evening.  Easton asked us to come back home.  He was missing us.  And he had some things to show us too.  Well, we sure miss them.  Thanks to Face Time though, it is the next best thing to a personal visit.

Our Edmonton family sent a few photos of Owen's 2nd birthday.  

Looked like a fun birthday party.

Courtney and Deni decorated their home with toys when Owen's friends came over for the birthday celebrations.

 And that's it from here, for now.  thanks for dropping in.

Bent Prop, A Ride and A Fire.

More friends arrived in the Gold Canyon area.  Fritz and Bonnie, who call Iowa home, rolled in and it has been fun getting together and catching up.

Yesterday started off being a bit breezy but we were up for a ride.  Joining us were Lavonne and Dave, also from Iowa.  By 10:30 am, we were rolling south from here.  We arrived at the airport in Eloy - made famous for the world wide sky diving - and took in some jumpers landing. Lunch was enjoyed at 'The Bent Prop'.

Military troops from New Zealand were preparing for their sky diving exercises.

Eloy, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

Click on the link above for more detailed information.

Time prevented us from checking out this facility at the Eloy airport. 

   Click on the following link for more information:   

Indoor Skydiving Wind Tunnel: SkyVenture Arizona

 

Armed Forces personnel approaching their landing site.

Although busy with sky divers - military and civilian - the airport itself was otherwise quiet.  I was pleasantly surprised to see two RV parks on site.  RVers with an interest in sky diving have access to level sites with services.

The front entrance to the Bent Prop restaurant.

Eloy, AZ - Official Website

And there is a little town atmosphere here too. 

On our ride back from Eloy, we dropped into the RV park that is the temporary RV home for Fritz and Bonnie.  They will move into Canyon Vista RV Resort this coming Monday.

Rolling into the Arizonian RV Park on Highway 60

Fritz and Bonnie brought their portable fire pit to Lavonne and Dave's Canyon Vista RV site.  L-R Bonnie, Lavonne, Dave, Me and Fritz.  Jeanette took the photo.

We enjoyed a beautiful Arizona outdoor evening, around a real wood fire, on Tuesday.  It was nice to catch up with these good folks.  And we also planned a motorcycle ride for this Saturday.  Our destination is not locked in but whether we head north, east, south or west, it's always a good day on two wheels.

This RV park does allow wood fires.  That is the exception rather than the rule.

While doing their laundry, two of our RV neighbours had a similar board hanging off of their RV ladders. This one is ours!

Most RV parks frown upon - or outright say no to - clothes lines.  That is understandable.  With our on-board stacked washer and dryer, we can avoid stringing a line outdoors.  For expediency though, hanging some clothes outdoors speeds up the laundry process.  We really liked this idea.  So.....I borrowed one neighbour's board, walked over to the wood work shop, here in Canyon Vista, and, within one half hour, I had one hanging board for ourselves.

The shop had an old 2X4 piece that was cut into a 1X3, planed and sanded, followed by drilling holes and notching grooves to attach to the RV ladder.  

The hanger board is not obtrusive and RV neighbours do not react negatively.  I even asked several RVers that surround our site. So.....that's a little tip and trick for fellow RVers.

And that concludes this blog.  Thanks for dropping in.

Ongoing Fun and Activities in Southern Arizona.

It has been another couple of fun days here in the Arizona desert.  Other than enjoying a bit of time in the sunshine, our friends, Gerry and Pauline, have kept us busy attending dinners, musical performances and a great Saturday drive south to tour the University of Arizona Biosphere.  

Gerry and Pauline, call Canyon Vista (in Gold Canyon, AZ) their winter home.  Montreal, Quebec is their Canadian home.

Located north and east from Tucson, the Biosphere is an amazing place to visit and to learn.  And it is captivating.  Having visited the Biosphere several years earlier, Gerry and Pauline were keen to take us along for the tour.  And what a place!

For complete details, click on the following link:   Biosphere 2 |

So much can be written about this amazing research facility but the Biosphere 2 | WEB link will satisfy your curiosity.  

Jeanette captured this photo; sitting outdoors at the Biosphere cafe' enjoying lunch before the tour.

Making our way into the facility.

The facility alone is an engineering marvel.

The researchers recreated an Amazon jungle with plants from there.

Oceanic research is done here.

Experiments conducted to grow edible plants in space in the future.

Impressive buildings

Making our way out from the Biosphere campus.

Jeanette, who so enjoys horticulture and anything related to science, was in her glory here.  She remarked that to have another go at a career, she would embrace the opportunity to work and to contribute to the research science of plant life here.   

Our Sunday motorcycle ride east and north towards the town of Superior, AZ

Other than a planned evening dinner out to include a country singer in Apache Junction, Jeanette and I spent out Sunday morning at the large (huge, in fact) Mesa Market.  Just walking around this tented facility took a few hours.  It is an interesting place.

Back to our RV spot for lunch, we researched some other RV spots for the future before choosing to take a ride further east from our site.  Although we have ridden here these past many years, it is so nice to roll into the mountains.  The saguaro cacti, the mountains, the roads and the topography, in general, are so visually appealing.  We never, ever tire being here.

Beautiful roads through beautiful countryside.

Back in Gold Canyon, we rode around one golf resort and into the beautiful residential areas here.

The Gold Canyon Golf Resort and Hotel

Sunday evening was spent with our friends - and meeting new friends - at an Apache Junction restaurant that featured a very good country singer who so well emulated Garth Brooks, the well respected country singer and song writer.  Garth Brooks | The Official Website (Click here for more information) 

We have one more week to enjoy this lovely area before closing up, lifting our jacks and moving west to our long term winter spot in the Palm Springs, California, area.  

Thanks for dropping in.