Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 6

We did sleep in this morning.  Judy is feeling a little better today but we didn't rush to leave the RV park.  Traffic is heavy here during rush hour so we decided to try and get out of town after the morning rush hour. We got on the road about 11:30 am and the traffic was still heavy but was moving for the most part.  After we cleared the Phoenix metro area, it was an easy 2-hour ride to Tucson.  The weather remains good, no wind and the roads are dry. There was still a lot of traffic on I-10 E but again, it kept moving.

We arrived at our destination, Rincon West RV Resort, just south of town.  It is another mega Snowbird resort with lots of things to do that we will not be doing.  The plan tomorrow is a road trip to Tubac, an artisty/crafty sort of town about 45 minutes south of Tucson.  We are are planning to revisit a restored Titan II missile complex nearby if we have time and enough energy.

We'll be here three nights with another road trip planned the day after tomorrow to Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

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Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 5

We slept in this morning after a tiring day yesterday.  Our plan was to just relax before visiting our friends this evening for dinner.   Judy's cough did not seem to be getting better however, so she decided to go to Urgent Care to get checked out and get some medicine before it got worse. She saw a PA, got an X-Ray, antibiotics, cough medicine and a different nasal inhaler.
  
We did go to Rich and Sylvia Aungers for dinner and had an enjoyable visit with them.  They live in Nevada City, but now are spending more time during the winter at their second home In Sun City Grand in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise.

We have a short drive to Tucson tomorrow so the plan again is to sleep in and leave after rush hour in Phoenix.

Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 4

We awoke this morning to a beautiful sunrise in the park.

We went to the Desert Botanical Garden today. We got a little bit of a late start and arrived around noon.  We had a great lunch at their restaurant, outside with perfect weather.  After lunch we walked around the extensive grounds.  We had been here two years ago and wanted to see it again. 

The botanical garden goes back to 1939 and has grown ever since.  It has every species of plant life growing in the Sonoran Desert and more from other deserts around the world. The main trail is a 1/3 of a mile Desert Discovery Loop Trail with several other loop trails branching out from the main trail.  Everything in the garden is very well done and visually attractive.  I took over 70 pictures and will post a few of the best after I get them sorted.

Desert Botanical Garden  and MIM pictures

After spending most of the afternoon walking (and resting) in the garden, we drove up to the Musical Instrument Museum in the north end of Scottsdale.  We were able to get tickets to a concert at the museum for that evening.  They have a really nice auditorium, not too big but with wide aisles, comfortable seats and elevated sight lines.  We have been to two other concerts here during previous visits and enjoyed both of them.  They have an extensive and varied concert schedule with over 70 concerts scheduled for the summer.

Since we had some time to kill before the concert we relaxed in the museum area and had a light dinner and drinks at a nearby restaurant.  When we arrived back at the museum for the concert we were greeted to another beautiful Arizona sunset.

The concert tonight was by a group we had never heard of but sounded interesting.  It was the Nicole Pesce Quartet.  They are a group of local Phoenix Area musicians who are apparently very popular in town.  The leader of the group, Nicole Pesce is an amazing pianist and has been a fixture at major hotel piano bars in Phoenix for at least the last 15 years.  They played a mixture of jazz, blues and contemporary selections and during intermission she asked people to text any song title they would like her to play.  After the break, she announced she received 87 song requests then went on to play most of them, woven into a seamless piano solo played from memory.  She is apparently known as the "Human iPod" and is said to have memorized over 12,000 musical selections.  Here is a sample of her work from You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GgltahacTo

After the concert, we arrived back at the RV park about 10:30 pm after a long and tiring, but enjoyable day.

Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 3

We had an easy ride to Phoenix today with a little wind en route in spots but it was mostly one-hand-on-the wheel driving with cruise control on.  We lost an hour as we crossed into Arizona but the gas dropped $0.50 a gallon.  Most gas is going anywhere from $1.69 -$1.79 per gallon all the way into Phoenix, even out on the highway.

We are now entering the part of the country where some rugged individuals try and make a go of it in sparse high desert country with limited water supplies and few economic opportunities.  Every now-and-then you see an isolated house in the middle of nowhere or in some hard scrabble desert "town".  One thing that seems to stand out however is the apparently common theme that when residents are through with their "stuff", they don't have many opportunities to dispose or get rid of it.  Consequently, a lot of it seems to be just put "out back", except for things that maybe they can sit in or on.  In that case they may end up on the front porch.

We are staying at the Pueblo El Mirage RV and Gulf Resort in El Mirage a NW Phoenix suburb.  We stayed here for a week last year on the way east.  It is a mega snowbird resort with a lot of park model RVs and trailers/fifth wheels that apparently stay here all year with seasonal residents.  Others from the northern tier arrive  usually after Thanksgiving with their rigs and stay until March/April after the snow melts back home. The facilities are excellent with just about everything a  snow bird would like to do from golf to bingo, line dancing and pickle ball.  We are not into any of that (at least not yet) but it is a good place to stay if you are going somewhere else.

We will be here three nights.  We will do some things tomorrow, probably visiting places we have been before to see what is new or maybe what we forgot about and think we are seeing for the first time.  We are having dinner Thursday  night with friends from Nevada City, Rich and Sylvia Aunger who spend the winter in their house in one of the Sun City communities nearby.  We will drive to Tucson on Friday and spend 3 days there with several side trips planned.

The excitement begins.

Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 2

Not a lot to report today.  We got on the road from Bakersfield about 9:30 am.. It was a quiet overnight stop along the Kern River (Still no water in the river -where did it go?).

We decided to travel over Tejon Pass to Tehachapi and over to 395 S to I-15/I-215/I-10 via San Bernardino.  It was a fairly easy drive with only occasional wind through the passes.  There was a little snow along the north slopes through the high  country but the roads were clear and dry. There was lots of traffic in the LA/San Bernardino area but it kept moving.

We  arrived in Indio about 3:00 pm  (we stay in  the right lane and out of everyone's way as much as possible) and are staying at the Shadow Hills RV Resort.  It is a gated resort just across the street from  a Del Webb Community (Shadow Hills).  It is a nice park with a lot of snowbirds and a good overnight stop along the way.

After running a few errands, we didn't feel like cooking, so we had pizza delivered and went to bed early.

On to Phoenix tomorrow where will spend three nights and be tourists during the day.

Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 1

Despite a very busy Saturday, we were able to leave home Sunday morning and get on the road by 10:00 am.  It was a perfect travel day - sunny, mild temperatures (60's), no wind, and manageable traffic.

We arrived at the River Run RV Park in Bakersfield around 4:30 pm.  (We stayed here last year.)  It is right on the Kern River, behind an industrial park but very nice. After getting set up and solving a minor problem with the cable TV connection, we were able to watch most of the second half of the Super Bowl.  After dinner in the RV it will be early to bed and on to Indio, CA (near Palm Springs) tomorrow.

We won't be making any special side trips until we get to Phoenix, AZ the day after tomorrow.

Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 0

Well, here we go again.  We are off to Florida for another visit to the Philadelphia Phillies spring training experience.

We are planning to leave this Sunday am and head for our first stop in Bakersfield, CA.  Saturday will be a busy prep day but we are almost ready.  In between the FOL book sale tomorrow, Clarence Turner's funeral (Barry's father) and our Rotary Club fundraiser (Casino Night) Saturday night, we will make final preparations and hopefully get on the road Sunday am.

We are looking forward to the trip and will attempt to document our travels each day on the blog.