Litchfield Park...

 

It's an upscale section in the Phoenix area.  Today, we went to the Litchfield Park Home Tour.  Dan did the graphic design for their brochure...

 Nicely done.  Besides a check, he got a couple wristbands (for entrance to the 6 homes featured in the tour).  The homes ranged in vintage from the 1960s to 2021.  I would describe this area as "classically elegant."  The homes that we toured are beautiful examples - sizes from 2,500 square feet to over 8,000.  It was fun to see how some of these have been beautifully updated, while keeping the classic exterior.

Some photos: an exterior...

A bedroom with the original brick...

Most of these homes were along the golf courses that are found in Litchfield Park.  Here's one view...

More exteriors...

The pool area at one house, alongside the golf course...

Back in the car, driving to the next house, this gorgeous row of palm trees...

The grande finale: the 6th home, most recently built, and huge (yes, the 8,000+ square foot one)...

Two RV garages!  That was just the start of it - a full gym, 2 sand volleyball courts, a sunken living room that opened to the pool area, with 24 linear feet of glass that completely open, a wine cellar, a custom chicken coop (air conditioned, of course) with fancy chickens (seriously, the first one I saw looked like a Maine Coon Chicken, followed by a Siberian Forest Chicken, and another that was wearing a coat of feathers that looked like something Liberace had worn.  No estate is complete without a "casita," that was bigger than our house.  Photos...

That's the living room above, open to the pool area.  And speaking of the pool area...

That bunch of horizontal things just left of center are built-in concrete pool chairs, allowing you to sit partially in the water.  That building at top center is a full bar and kitchen; yes, it is a swim-up bar.  The place went on and on.  They had people stationed around to give you directions.

It was an interesting tour.  The proceeds $25 per person for the wristbands goes to support the Litchfield Museum.  Dan has been doing their brochure for this since the inception of this fund-raising tour.

This is a beautifully elegant part of town.

Second to the last...

 

Now that we're down to one week before we hit the road again, plenty of our day-to-day stuff will be "the last time this trip."  Today, Joan and I went to Mark and Cindy's house.  After lunch (thanks, Cindy - it was tasty!), we visited for a bit, then went into "Junior High Dance mode": the boys went one way, the girls went the other.  Joan and Cindy made a trip to a fabric store... which turned out to be more recon than retail.  Mark and I went into his studio and put some finishing touches on the music video we recently completed, worked on another new song, then made some music.  It was a good afternoon.

Cindy made a beautiful bead mala for Joan.  "What's a mala?"  Thanks for asking - it is a string of 108 beads used in meditation to focus the mind (Cindy is a yoga instructor).  The tassel on a mala is a representation of a lotus flower.  The guru bead (starting and ending point for meditation/prayer) on this necklace is... a mermaid.  Cindy knows our connection to the water.  She wrote: "You mala is Jade, which is a good luck stone, bringing prosperity, deep wisdom, compassion, peace, and balance."  Lovely...

Second to last?  One more get-together next week with Mark and his friends to make some music.

Where's Rufus?

 

We hadn't seen him for a few minutes...

 

"Hi, Pops!  Wassup?"  That's the cabinet above our bed in the motorhome.

 

Warning, Will Robinson - Danger!

 

If you said, "The robot from the 60s TV series Lost In Space," you get 15 bonus points.  I still say that, when I sense a dicey situation.  It is beautiful sunshine this morning, still cooler than normal; the lady that does weather on the local NBC station (weaselette?) said, "Another day with temperatures about 15º below normal."

But, the big situation now: flood warnings.  After the heavy rain on Tuesday night and into Wednesday, there are 7 flood warnings when I pull up local info on the Weather Channel...

This will continue for the near term as the water runs downstream.  Some of the dams on streams in the Valley are having to let water out, only adding to the local problems.  Nothing in our immediate area.

I put on a jacket and a stocking cap to go out to make us breakfast on the griddle.  Get the food into the motorhome immediately, before it gets cold.

I think I will put on a lined riding jacket and get in a short ride.  Joan wants to go out for an early supper... I'm in!

Squalls out on the Gulfstream...

 

... big storm's comin' soon.

If you said, "Jimmy Buffett, 1974, Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season," you get 25 bonus points.  We are nowhere near the Gulfstream, but the rain squalls and wind blew through last night again here in the desert.  It adds to the already active flooding in much of Arizona. 

None of us slept well last night.  The rain continued until about 9:00 am today.  And then... sunshine.  Don't be fooled by the sunshine, though - it won't get out of the 60s again here today.

Our patio mats are staked down.  Joan had laid down the chairs last night.  All that was necessary this morning out on the patio was emptying water out of anything that would hold it.

Yesterday, we decided our "Arizona time" would happen in late November and all of December next winter.  Yes, later this year.  We will leave the bikes home and be content to wear warmer clothes for a month, and not be disappointed with the crap weather.

Since we plan to be here in December, we got tickets to the Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks that will be happening in Phoenix at that time.  Steph was able to get them a day ahead of them opening to the public (a Verizon perk), and we got 4 seats together.

 

Now all we have to do is find a place to stay... we assumed it would be easy to get an RV site in November and December (since the busy time in this area is January through March)... we assumed incorrectly.  The two RV parks that are closest to their house ('cause we aren't planning to stay in Buckeye again) don't even take reservations until June 15th and July 15th.  Yes, one of those is the park that has management that is of the asshole persuasion, but it has been a real pain having to drive the extra distance to get to Steph and Dan's house.  At both parks, their "regulars" get first shot at booking a site.

Coming back to Phoenix earlier than usual means we'll likely be shifting other travel plans... we're in negotiations (with each other) about how much time to schedule at Hart Ranch this summer.  It is my favorite place to be, due to the excellent motorcycle riding.  Thanks to Mother Nature, we didn't get near as much riding here in Arizona this trip.  Prices at all the RV parks we frequent have increased significantly.  I'm sensing changes in our future.

Slow Going...

 

An old guy on a motorcycle?  Funny, but no.  It is motorcycle related, though: the video that has been days in the process is now uploading to YouTube.  Slowly.  As in: the time for it to finish uploaded is one hour and 56 minutes.  Yep, that is slow.

In one hour and 49 minutes, I should be heading out to go to Mark's house to make some music.  It's going to be close... if the wifi signal hangs in there.

Tick, tick, tick...

 

Road Trip!

 

You're leaving the Phoenix area?  No, but thanks for asking.  More struggling with the Insta360 app - getting the wifi in the camera to connect with my iPad so I can edit and download all the video I shot on Saturday.  Joan wanted to make a run to Sam's Club and Wally World... I went along to see if the camera wifi would work, once away from this RV park.

Yep.  And by "went along," I mean: passenger seat with the camera and iPad on my lap.  My goal: get through about 25 video clips to edit and get saved on the iPad... and then download that to my MacBook Pro once home ('cause that part takes even more time, working with the 5mg cap on my phone hotspot).

As it played out, the camera did stall out once Joan fired up Apple Car Play to use the Maps app.  Then it started again.  I sat in the car while Joan went into Walmart, and got the rest of the videos onto the iPad.  The iPad is the best device to use to edit the 360 clips out of the camera; then push those edited clips to the laptop for the final cuts and edits.  With the camera wifi not working at the RV park, I lost a couple days on that project.

It will probably be a couple days to wade through this, but here's a couple still "snapshots" from the videos...