Keeping busy in AZ

Juggler at the Renaissance Festival



Jousting at the Renaissance Festival



The group at the Festival



Larry at the Viet Nam Wall



Releasing the black balloons signifying the POW/MIAs



The family at the March birthday party



Fixing and eating s'mores in the backyard



The birthday boys, Colby and Alex



Us in front of Canyon Lake (one of three lakes on the Apache Trail)
(can't really see the lake as the guardrail blocks it)



One lane bridge on the gravel part of the Apache Trail



Bridge over Roosevelt Lake by the dam



Cliff dwellings in Tonto National Monument near Roosevelt Lake



On the way to the cliff dwellings. There are eight rooms altogether.


We are back in Apache Junction, AZ for five weeks and are keeping very busy. We've seen many friends, planned and unplanned encounters, visited with family and toured parts of AZ we have not seen before. Dawn and Vince stopped by and we followed them out to the Renaissance Festival. The festival has been held in AZ for 20 years but we had never gone before. It was 'interesting' but not something we will do again.

The Viet Nam Wall made a trip to Apache Junction and we visited it just in time for the POW/MIA ceremony. It was very moving especially when they released hundreds of black balloons as a local gal sang 'Wind beneath my Wings' (very well I might add).

We all met at Todd and LaTia's home for March birthdays but one grandson couldn't come at the last minute, a real disappointment to Grandma! We still had a great time and enjoyed their firepit in the backyard by making s'mores. We are going back for a repeat in April.

We took a trip on the Apache Trail (22 miles of washboard 'gravel') from Apache Junction to Roosevelt Lake and back via 'regular' roads. The scenery was awesome with many spring wildflowers in bloom and the mountains and saguaros at their finest. We discovered there are cliff dwellings in the Tonto National Monument near Roosevelt Lake and we hiked up to them. We certainly have a new appreciation for the Salado Indians who built them and lived there several hundred years ago!

Hanging out in the AZ Desert

Pilot Knob RV Park, looking southeast towards Mexico


Larry working on the back-up warning system on the car


We're in the back corner so have lots of room to spread out


Sunset that was really much prettier 'in person'!




We spent two weeks along the Colorado River in Ehrenberg, AZ and visited Quartzsite, AZ, a place we had seen from I-10 many times but never visited before. Based on what others told us, the economy slowed many folks down and there were not as many folks as vendors there as in past years. It is basically a BIG YARD sale on sand and you need to be careful where you buy. It was interesting but not something I care to do again anytime soon.

We are currently near Yuma, AZ so we could visit Algondones, Mexico where Larry bought new glasses and had a broken crown replaced by a partial. His gum is still sore but he is hoping it will heal/toughen up soon.

The weather has heated up to the 90's in the last two days so we are grateful for air conditioning! We head back to the Phoenix area this week to see the kids and grandkids again before heading north for the summer.