Apricity West 2

December 10, 2021, Friday

Well, we have become Friday Fish Fry Regulars at the Elks, but this week they had a new band. They were good. 

There was a Light Parade scheduled on that street at 6:30pm, but we had already committed to a Holiday Concert at the Community Center. It featured a choir of about 25 men and women with really great voices. It was very formal in comparison to the Christmas Angels at Lee Congregational Church, but I had to get musically merry. Don’t miss the Lee concert this weekend!

December 11 & 12, 2021, Saturday and Sunday

Practiced our instruments today - serenaded each other until we couldn’t take it anymore. 

Went for our daily 15 -20 minute bike ride. It is cooler now so we bundle up a bit more. 

Did some art stuff - Christmas cards for the family. All others, consider this my Christmas card - Merry Christmas ❣️

 

December 13, 2021, Monday

I am reading (listening to) a great book, The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins, which is a trilogy about 2 families and their egregious interconnection over several generations starting with the hanging of one man and the exile to Jamaica of his son, documenting true historical events. Highly recommended.

I have not binge watched anything in a long time, but Big Sky on Hulu hooked me! It is a real thriller which is hard to stop watching!

December 14, 2021, Tuesday 

Now that Rich is a member of the Wickenburg Art Club, he goes in to town with Tom on Tuesday mornings to work on their art at the center. At 4:30pm we went back for a potluck dinner to get to know the amazingly talented people in the club,

Alet Kern (Tom’s wife) and Pam Plummer (artist)

Rich’s work will be juried and hung here too.

December 15, 2021, Wednesday 

Dance class is really fun and makes you feel young…

This is Suzi whose joy in dancing reminds me of Susie Brighenti’s… always a smile on her face while dancing!

We went to John and Eileen's today and shopped at Sam’s Club - not as good as Costco in my opinion. Then lunch at Saigon Kitchen again - love that place. Rich got Pho and we forgot to take a picture. Here is a Google stock picture.

Rich had two visits on his website (www.richartcreations.com) from France! Yay! Check it out!

December 16, 2021, Thursday

Went for 2 mile walk with my neighbor, Lou, from Nevada. We are considered the newbies at line dancing.

A lousy, fuzzy picture of this lovely lady dancing. 

We finally coordinated a walk together through the Saguaro Park and around the perimeter of the entire North Ranch. Walked, talked, and gawked at the wide variety of stone-scaped yards that these residents display. I don’t get as good a view when we ride our bikes or the bug, so this was up close and personal…  

In Saguaro Park, the rocks end and bricks now line a section of the park as a memorial for those who have passed beginning in 1994 with their name, year of death, and SKP number. Where you see 2 bricks, the remaining spouse has passed too. When we got to 2018, I counted 27 bricks and that doesn’t include those that are placed next to their spouse who passed before them. In 2019 there were 16 bricks; in 2020 there were a dozen more. It makes sense - the founding couple in 1978 (Joe and Kay Peterson) of the SKP’s have both passed and their children and grandchildren now run the organization.

The Time Capsule is another feature which I love…

The weekly Jam Session had 10 musicians today and they were excellent. I really hope Rich and I get to the point of joining the circle with our new instruments before we leave!

Rich was invited to join some folks to sit around the  campfire, have a drink, and watch the Christmas Parade the day after I leave for 10 days. That is wonderful news. The parade consists of North Ranch residents who decorate floats and bikes to drive through the whole park. Hopefully, he will remember to take pictures so I can share them.

 

Apricity West 2

 December 3, 2021, Friday

 

Ruth’s Bunkhouse - This is a very interesting, upscale art boutique shop and she accepts consignment. We will be returning with some of Rich’s work. We met Ruth at Richard’s 77th birthday party when we first arrived and have been following the shop on Facebook. She and her husband, Dan, have a number of Richard Martinson’s pieces on display.

 

Elks Club again. Tonight's Special was Chicken Huli Huli over rice.

 

December 4, 2021, Saturday

Wickenburg Sites

Double H Hat Company

Hassayampa Historic Building 

Wickenberg Art Club - Rich finally registered for the art club. He can now show his art at any event in Wickenburg without paying a fee. This presents many opportunities for exposure, and sales. 

December 5, 2021, Sunday 

Packing up for the trip ahead… The good thing about having a home on wheels is that you don’t have to pack and unpack when you travel - just secure all items, doors and windows. AND you don’t have to use public restrooms!

 

December 6, 2021, Monday

Heading to Oceanside, CA today to visit dear family friends of Rich… More info on them after I meet them.  It is a 6 hour trip with pit stops. The first hour and a half was pretty barren dessert passing through Aguila and  Salome - each with their own Dollar Store. Casinos start showing up in the desert - 3 in total. A huge solar farm can be seen in the distance. As we got closer to Quartzite, there were RV Parks every 1/2 mile on both sides of the road. However, Quartzite is best known for its BLM (Bureau of Land Management).

 

The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands.

Headquartered in Grand Junction, Colorado, and with oversight over 247.3 million acres, it governs one eighth of the country's landmass. Wikipedia

Agency executive: Tracy Stone-Manning, Director

Headquarters: Washington, D.C.

Employees: Over 10,000

Founder: Harry S. Truman

Founded: December 10, 1946

Annual budget: $1.31 billion (FY2021)

Acreage: 245 million acres blm.gov

 

This is where RVs just pull off the road, drive to their special spot where they go off-the-grid (aka, boondock, dry camp) with no hookups for power, water, or sewer. There is supposedly a section of nudists too - can’t imagine how much time they spend applying sunscreen! As we drive through this area, you can see glints of metal reflections (RVs) as far as the eye can see on both sides of Interstate 10. We have not used our A/C, just a fan, but do use a small ceramic heater in the morning when the temperature is in 40s-50s. Folks will come down from the North in winter and put up in the middle of nowhere for the winter! Some will have solar on their rig for electricity, but since there are no hookups, companies drive around to provide water and sewer dumps (honey pot). It may be a LOT cheaper, but Rich and I could never (would never) dry camp in the desert or Walmart! Technically because of our CPAP machines; rationally because it doesn’t seem safe. 

Chiriaco Summit - General Patton Memorial Tanks

Pulled off of I-10 for gas and here in the middle of nowhere is a museum for General Patton…

The story starts in the 1930s in the face of limited water and power, rudimentary roads, and few other amenities. Joe and Ruth Chiriaco, a son and a daughter of immigrants, fueled their vision to serve the world on wheels with a deep but sometimes rocky love. The story moves through the building of aqueducts and roads, the laying of power lines, the development of Joshua Tree National Park next door, social, economic, environmental changes, and the arrival of a new set of immigrants. 

General Patton enters the story in the 1940s with thousands of troops. He spars with Joe Chiriaco, yet they become respected friends. Today the General Patton Memorial Museum, a nonprofit (501-C3), is an easy walk from the Summit’s modern complex, and the General remains an ongoing influence.

The hard-work ethic lightened by the antics of youth, several love stories, and plain good business sense combine to unfold how and why Chiriaco Summit has not only endured for four generations but flourished despite many obstacles. This book is a history that is fun to read.

 

Crossed over into Pacific Time in Blythe, CA so now behind EST by 3 hours. The cacti disappear and the palm trees prevail. I mentioned how hazy it was now and Rich corrected me - it is SMOG. They have Smog Stations that measure the amount of toxins you're emitting, but don’t inspect brakes, lights, etc. 

 

At first we thought this cattle was being fattened up and in holding for slaughter. We were relieved to see that it was a Dairy Farm! Phew...

 

Paradise by the Sea Beach RV Resort - A very nice park right on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), with pools, spa, picnic cove, cement pads, palm trees, cable tv, decent internet, paved roads for biking, seagulls, an entrance to the path to the beach. This is the underpass of the SeaCoaster rail that we walked through…

…for breakfast at the Buccaneer Cafe! Look st the size of this breakfast bagel and burrito!


Bird of Paradise along the way. 

It turns out that we were not able to meet up with the friends as planned, but we had a nice adventure - traveled coast to coast seeing new places and new faces along the way. We drove up the coast through Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar, Balboa Island, as far as Huntington Beach before heading inland to make our way back. Rich lived there in 2002 when he was selling welding alloys for Cronatron Welding Systems. 

Traffic was backed up for construction and the police use a very interesting way to slow traffic down - they zig zag across 6 lanes of traffic to slow it down! Never heard of that before...

 

December 9, 2021, Thursday

Took a bunch of cards into Ruth’s Bunkhouse today. They really like Rich’s work and feel good about having his cards. Interestingly, their customer’s look for large Southwestern art - 5 ft. X 5 ft. to don the walls of their spacious homes. There is so much growth, especially at Wickenburg Ranch, that it boggles the mind how they will manage the traffic and shopping needs. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apricity West 2

November 26, 2021, Friday

Wickenburg graffiti…

Another Friday night Fish Fry at the Elks, but the special on of the month is steak - it was delicious.

November 27, 2021, Saturday

FINALLY got to see the 2 Man Roping contest in Wickenburg, the Team Roping Capital of the World!! We drive by this place often and look down from a distance upon all of the horse trailers, campers, horses, cattle and cowboys! 

I know that some of my readers will understandably be upset about this event, but today was the day to check it out - up close and personal. We were looking for a place to park Gracie and pulled up next to a trailer and asked the nearest cowboy if it was OK to park there. He said it wasn’t a problem and we started chatting. 

He was atop his 9 year old, 14.2 hand horse, Dawg, and offered us Easterners a chance to climb aboard. 

It was quite the climb - I thought I was going to pull the saddle off as I tried to hoist all of me onto the saddle. I must say it is a wide seat to span as well. It wasn’t pretty, but I made it (with a mighty push from Rich from the rear) - for this photo op. 

We came to find out he was from Colorado with his 2 young sons and the small horse, Cactus.

When they warm up with their horses for the contest, the arena is full of different size, shape, gender, age, abilities, and occupations (I imagine) of riders. It isn’t like driving a car, so the horses were very aware of who and what was happening around them. There are no lanes or speed limits - everyone is trying to practice lassoing, stopping, starting, even backing up their steed amongst a whole bunch of others doing the same.  Oh and the machine that rakes the dirt is doing his own symetrical  pattern - like a zamboni machine does on the skating rinks. And so many of the riders were holding/checking out a cell phone in one hand and the reins in the other. 

 

The fees are $75 per horse, and $175 for 2 rounds of roping. Our cowboy was a “heeler” (back legs) and his partner was a “header” (horns of the steer). It is a timed event in which the announcer declares how long it took for each to rope their end of the steer - header ropes 1st, then the heeler. They release the steer immediately.

We watched one of his rounds and he lost grip of his rope so it counts as nothing. We missed his second attempt, but he seemed happy with it when we said goodbye.

This young boy and his adult partner had the fastest time we saw - he was the “header.” Pretty impressive!

It was a great experience and I know we will return for more while we are here. Next time in full regalia?!

BARNSTAR BREWERY 

The owner, Sandy, taking one of her last loads of glasses over to her house to wash!

Rich felt the need to go over to Skull Valley for the closing day of Barnstar Brewery. He was nostalgic since he had gone there every weekend for 8 years while working at North Ranch. 

Later she was sipping on her champagne when he approached her to congratulate and wish her well. I asked her if it was true about the amazing things they were supposed to have accomplished (won spelling bees at the Kremlin, wore the green jacket at Augusta, rode horses to victory at Churchill Downs, cliff dove in Acapulco, climbed Everest (without oxygen), ran a 2 minute mile and  swam the English Channel) before “making great beer”. She confessed with a smile that it was said with fun and jest - they were just joshing around. They will continue to live at the ranch now and when people say they will stop by to say Hi, she says they can meet her 2 new Dobermans. So I asked if the mini-horses were still there and she said she would never sell her “children,” but she found a perfect home for them - someone who has young children and takes in foster children who have mini-goats to help them learn the value and responsibility of owning animals. Seems like a win-win situation. 

 

We bought a growler for cousin John as he had been to the brewery with Rich many times. 

 

November 28, 2021, Sunday

Today’s big event was our friend Keith Bisel being inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame. 

I first heard of this sport in Florida about 3 years ago when they installed courts in Heritage Harbour though it began 50 years ago. It seems like every place I go now, I hear of it. It is a mini version of tennis played with smaller rackets and small wiffle balls. 

About 60 people showed up here for the ceremony from our park as well as from parks in Surprise. Two types of people get inducted - players and contributors. Keith is a contributor although he has played in 2 tournaments and won gold in both of them. His passion as an educator is to teach/coach new players wherever he happens to be. 

He and his wife, Roberta, have traveled across the United States numerous times and he met and reached out to numerous interested people who wanted to learn the game. Keith has recorded every person he taught in a scrapbook and he is up 4,280 students since 1994!  

He received a personalized jacket, two rings (as one was from 2020 - which didn’t happen - so they got another one inscribed with 2021), a framed certificate for recognition of his dedication to this sport.

He was so moved that he choked up on his brief speech and his wife had to read it for him. It was quite the ceremony as many attendees told stories about Keith that stirred your heart. After learning the basics, the main thing to remember about this game was to have FUN! 

 

November 29, 2021, Monday

Did I mention that I ordered a Ukulele? Denny, who sold Rich the guitar, said his wife wanted to start up a group to learn ukulele together. Sounds like a little fun and a lot of challenge, so why not? Well it arrived today and the hardest part so far has been tuning it and keeping it tuned. I have learned 3 chords and can play You Are My Sunshine...

November 30, 2021, Tuesday

I have been trying to clean up/improve Rich’s website (www.RichArtCreations.com) and it is nightmare to do on my laptop with limited wifi, so I did most of it on my phone. However, some things really have to be done on the laptop so I bring it with me when we visit John and Eileen. It is amazing that he has already had visitors from Dublin, Ireland and Zhengzhou, China on top of those on this continent!

Another lunch at the Wolfhound today. 

If you recall, we got together with Rich (artist) and Pat for his 77th birthday when we first arrived in North Ranch. Since then Pat has had some health issues and her daughter wants her to be closer to her, so they moved in to Glendale, outside of Surprise. They are very sad about it because they have such wonderful neighbors/friends and a view of sunrise and sunset. The new place seems to be enclosed on all sides. I see both sides of this, but it was sad to see them pull out...

 

December 1, 2021, Wednesday

Can’t believe it is already December! The new dance shoes are working out well for Line Dancing. Anything to feel lighter on my feet.

 

December 2, 2021, Thursday 

Broke out the water colors today - first time in a while. There isn’t a better backdrop than sitting at the picnic table in the shade of the camper under the bluest of skies to try to create a masterpiece! Ha - nothing worth sharing here though...