Happy New Year!

A lot has happened since I last posted and where to start?? We went on our first long group ATV ride this past week. There were 8 ATV's, 4 of us from the park and 4 from outside the park. Two of us were novice riders so the group was determined to initiate us. It was a cool morning and we took off about 0900 hours and didn't get back till 3pm. We definitely had fun! Charlie and Brian were leading us and they took us way back into the mountains and showed us old mine shafts, a hill covered in pieces of petrified rock and then made us climb the side of a mountain to the top so we would have a total view of the east valley. I must say my legs were shaking when I got out of the ATV at the top! Doug did great though and the Rhino just kept climbing no matter that we were on sheer rock and at a crazy angle. The other novices Trent and Ann went up ahead of us and we were all pretty proud of ourselves when we got to the top! Ann and I were thinking we were going to walk down the mountain and get back in the ATV at the bottom but the shale was so slippery we decided the ATV was the safer place to be! We were pleasantly surprised to find our ATV's in 4x4 and low gear just slowly climbed down the hill and it was actually scarier to go up the hill than down! The group said we are no longer novice drivers after that hill! Not many steeper than that around they said.

 We are just leaving the park, Ann & Trent ahead of us and I'm taking the picture from our ATV

Heading out to the mountains

  We stop for a break as we come through a cattle fence

We come to the first old mine shaft

Ann & Sharon returning from a bathroom break behind the cacti

We are heading off to the next mine site

 We find another mine, went in over 160 ft!

 A closer look at the mine opening

Some of the wonderful roads we traveled over 

Not really a road just rock we were driving on

We are at the top of one of the little mountains looking over the valley

You can see for miles from the tops of the hills

We ate lunch atop this hill

Doug & I returning from a short hike

Sharon looking over the edge of the last mountain we climbed - the scary one!

Ann thinking she and I will walk down the mountain!

We were up pretty high!

Gorgeous scenery everywhere you looked

Sharon was glad to get back down to level ground

The scenery was breath taking

I make the mistake of telling Doug I was glad to be on flat ground and he points out a road up the little hill and threatens to take me up it!

We had a wonderful trip and have plans to go out tomorrow, Sunday January 02 with the group again to explore some more old mine sites. They tell me there won't be any major mountain sides to climb, much to my relief.

This past Tuesday evening we went to Barleen's Arizona Opry with a group from our RV park. We got supper and a 2 hour show which we really enjoyed. Very talented group I must say

Barleen twins

 These fellows could play any and all instruments

 They all had excellent singing voices from country to pop to golden oldies

As the year end approached, a huge winter storm came in from California and we had one day of heavy rain, thunder and lightening and then the next day it started to cool off and I mean cool off!! We went from day highs in the mid-seventies to a high of 48 degrees. The last few nights have been below freezing and we had to wrap our water hoses to keep them from freezing. Some of us ladies have still been doing our outdoor water aerobics and thank-goodness for the hot tub. Our friends Grace and Malcolm (we were friends in Nelson BC) came out from Mesa (they have a winter home in a modular home park) on Thursday and brought their oldest daughter Megan and her daughter Shaylyn who were visiting for Christmas. We hadn't seen Megan in over 25 years and had never met Shaylyn. We had a lovely visit and Doug took Malcolm and Shaylyn out for a ride in the desert in the ATV. Of course they had to go through the mud puddles!

Malcolm & Shaylyn returning from ride

Shaylyn thought she was pretty special getting to drive

New Year's Eve we went into Mesa and met Grace, Malcolm, Megan and Shaylyn and we all went out to dinner. We had a lovely time and were home by 8:30pm. Doug and I bundled up and went for a long walk around the park before we settled in for the night. I was in bed before midnight, just couldn't stay awake any longer. We are a real rowdy couple! We hope you all have a wonderful New Year