MEETING NEW FRIENDS AND ENJOYING OLD FRIENDS

Thursday, March 12 – We were off to Goodyear, Arizona, this morning for our last Cleveland Indian Spring Training baseball game. They are playing last year's American League Champion, the Kansas City Royals.

A gorgeous day for a game.

We again arrived at the ball field early enough to roam around and enjoy the excitement of pre-season baseball. We had pretty nice seats down the first base foul line. We grabbed a couple hot dogs (You can't go to the ball field and not have a dog.), some peanuts, and a couple beverages and sat back to enjoy the game.

The game started out so promising with our first batter hitting a triple.

It didn't take long for Marsha's phone to start beeping. We had told the family we were attending the game, so they were watching on their local TV channels to see if they could catch a glimpse of us. Evidently we were right in line with the camera that keeps the pitcher in view because we were constantly on the TV screen. They even zoomed in on us a time or two and caught Paul shelling peanuts and feeding his face....ha ha! Masha’s dad called us twice while we were at the game telling us how many times he keeps seeing us. Our daughter even had a friend call her to tell her she was watching us on TV. JEESH.......stardom!

Unfortunately, the score didn't end as we would have hoped. They are still playing many new guys to establish who to keep in the majors and who to delegate to the lower leagues. I suppose we should have delayed our visit closer to the end of spring training in hopes of seeing more of the starters. Maybe so, but we've enjoyed the games and are making preparations after a month in the Phoenix area to head toward New Mexico and then Texas.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to meet for the first time Ingrid and Al, Live, Laugh, RV, and dear friends, Pam and John, Oh, The Places They Go.  We met at Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction, a really neat pub. We had a great time with lots of talk, laughter and delicious food. Both of these couples love to hike and enjoy the outdoors. We have so much in common.

F: Ingrid, Al, Pam; B: Marsha, Paul, John.

We meet up again with Pam and John for dinner on Wednesday. We intended to show them the famous Organ Stop Pizza, home of the huge mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, but upon arriving we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in. Yikes, that didn't look like something we wanted to do, so we headed down the road. We eventually stopped at a nice Mexican Cantina for dinner and to visit for awhile.

Marsha’s back is giving her fits again. She is taking muscle relaxers and laying on an ice pack. We will be laying low the next few days hoping the spams slow down.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

TEXAS BEATS OHIO

Sunday, March 8 – We joined Janice and Dave, Ready To Go Full Time RVing,  today to attend the Cleveland Indians vs Texas Rangers spring baseball game at Surprise, Arizona. This is the Ranger's home field which they share with the Kansas City Royals. It's a very nice stadium and part of the 15 team Cactus League here in the Phoenix area.

It was a beautiful day for baseball with temperatures in the 80's. Man was the sun intense. Luckily it was not beating down on our faces. We sat on the third baseline today. We usually sit on the first baseline but luckily not today or the sun would have hit us head on and baked us for sure!

Starting pitcher….T.J. House

Carolos Santana at the plate.

It was a good game and came down to the last out in the 9^th inning. With a runner on third, the score tied 7-7, two outs, full count, the Texas Ranger batter got a hit and won the game. Dang! It was fun and we enjoyed visiting with Janice and Dave.

Janice, Dave, Marsha, Paul and the photobomber in the background. lol

The stadium has the best huge posters on their walls.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

MOTHER NATURE’S GYM

Wednesday, March 5 – We skipped our workout at Planet Fitness this morning and took on Mother Nature's Gym instead. We were in the South Mountains just outside Phoenix, Arizona, to hike the Holbert Trail. Man, what a great hike!

Even though we were on the trail early, we were surprised by the number of hikers enjoying this mountain. It's unusual for us to see many other hikers, but today there were numerous other hikers climbing the trail. Many were young adults with ear buds in their ears drowning out most everything. Some, of course, were running up the trail, many had no water, and nearly all had no idea about trail etiquette. We sound too much like our parents when we state the condition of this young generation... Ha Ha!

Back to the trail.....It begins with a very easy segment through some large rocks. If you look carefully there are numerous petroglyphs by the Hohokam people on many of the higher rocks. We discovered that the first .68 mile is not counted on the trail map when figuring length of trail.

Once we reached the actual beginning of the trail, it becomes a pretty steady climb and almost a constant rock scramble.

Beautiful rock formations.

The trail is easy to follow and very well marked. We climbed on one side of the canyon then crossed over and continued climbing through a series of switchbacks on the other wall of the canyon. It's not overwhelmingly steep but a very nice trail and a good workout.

See Paul waaaay over there.

Part of our trail.

The trail ends at the top of the mountain where it meets the National Trail which connects to the Box Canyon Loop trail to return to the original trailhead.

That loop is very long, over 14 miles, so we choose instead to climb the short, steep trail up to Dobbins Lookout to the observatory at the top of the mountain.

A very steep, rocky climb but well worth it.

Weren't we surprised to find a parking lot with many cars and people at the mountain top. Actually, we were aware you could drive up to the observation point but forgot all about it during our hike. That answers our query where people were coming from hiking down the mountain when they never passed us by. Evidently, they were dropped off at top and were hiking down. This was reinforced by the fact only one other car was in the trailhead parking lot when we started and only four when we finished.

The Lookout was named after James C. Dobbins, the chairman of the Phoenix Planning Commission who spearheaded the efforts to purchase the land. It is the highest viewing point accessible to visitors by trail at almost 2,330 feet.

This is a great hike we really enjoyed and recommend to others. We covered 7.28 miles with an elevation gain of 1071 feet. It took us 3.25 hours, not counting time spent at the top and time spent enjoying some lunch, before heading back down the mountain.

Brunch with a view.

We've hiked several mountain ranges around Phoenix (Superstition Mountains, Usery Mountains, Estrella  Mountains, and McDowell Mountains) in two visits to Phoenix and can now add South Mountains to the list. Be sure to checkout this area when in or around Phoenix. We think you'll enjoy your hike.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!