Trip04

Saturday. 04

Got up and just hung out today. No hurry leaving. We only have a hundred miles to go to Phoenix, check in time isn’t until two or three, and I don’t want to leave anyway. Why would I want to leave this to stay in some crummy fancy resort? This park just feels way too good. We’re parked next to some small mulberry trees, and some other trees and bushes I don’t recognize. Not pure desert landscape at this altitude. We’re not down into the Saguaros yet.

And today I got the perfect run. Now that’s what runs are supposed to feel like. Ninety degrees, light wind, hot and sweaty out running in the desert. It felt great.

Saw a phainopepla. Same size and shape as a cardinal, except it’s black and has red eyes. Neat bird. Haven’t seen a phainopepla in fifteen years. We don’t spend as much time in the desert southwest as we used to.

Met another couple about our age; Steve and Linda. They’re the ones camped under the giant sycamore trees. They have a little Cockapoo kind of dog, so Judy got her puppy fix. This is a business trip. Annie and Rags didn’t get to come with us on this trip. Steve and Linda are just here for the weekend, then back to Phoenix and back to work. Somebody gave Steve a really good windsurfer, but he doesn’t windsurf, and he doesn’t have any lakes around. He said if I wanted to stop by he’d give it to me. A windsurfer with two masts, five sails, three dagger boards; who could pass that up? We don’t have the tow car, and we don’t have anyplace to hang it on the outside, but we’ll think of something. We’ll call him before we leave, and stop on the way out.

There are two ways you can attach the tow car to the back of the motorhome. You can have a tow setup that resides on the back of the motorhome and hooks or unhooks from the tow car, or you can get a setup that resides on the tow car and hooks and unhooks from the back of the motorhome. I thought it would be a no-brainer to get the one that resides on the motorhome, so the tow car is clean while you’re out driving around, but my brother Tom said no. He said there was good reason to want the one that resides on the tow car, and in fact most people choose that configuration. We’re now conducting our own tow survey, inventorying all the tow setups we see on this trip. So far we have seen twelve, and to our surprise, they are perfectly divided, six each. I actually thought my brother Tom might be wrong.

Made the drive to Pointe South Mountain Resort for the conference. Very fancy. Lots of fountains. A golf course. An entire workout gym. Six restaurants. A water park. AND A RACQUETBALL COURT. TWO RACQUETBALL COURTS! I had just happened to throw my racquetball gear in the motorhome for this trip. Hate to miss an opportunity, you know. Now if I can only find a racquetball victim. I left a note at the gym in case anyone wants to play. I almost got the kid at the front desk to play with me but it turns out he didn’t have any court shoes with him. The conference starts tomorrow. I’ll post a challenge on the message board for the conference attendees as well.