Batter Up!

One of the great things about March in Arizona 

(besides the weather) ...    is Baseball!

15 Teams make the Phoenix Metro their spring home and the towns

roll out the red carpet for the teams and fans.

We poured on the coal heading west in the hope that we would make it to

Phoenix before spring training concluded at the end of March, and

fortunately we made it in time to catch one of the last games of the spring season.

We returned to Surprise Stadium - where we saw the Texans last year, and this

year we saw the Colorado Rockies vs the Texas Rangers.

My old home vs my new home!

Being a die-hard Broncos fan...   I had to cheer on Colorado.

It was no use however as Texas won 6-5

The great thing about spring training is you are in a much more intimate setting than

at the home stadiums, and its easy to get great seats at reasonable prices.

We were behind the netting just to the right of the plate.

While here we stayed at Lake Pleasant Regional Park, on the northwest

fringe of the Phoenix Metro.

Its a great park with 50amp and water hookups with a dump on the way out.

The views from our site were great, and a nice cool breeze blew off of the lake helping

to moderate the warm daytime temps.

The Ocotillo are green and the flowers in bloom

My job has been a real grind lately with 14hr + days, and each morning 

I would take a break from work and we would go on a walk with

Jim & Kristi before I would go back to my cave to continue my labors...

Many days my work lasted long into the night.

We arrived too late to catch the desert "superbloom" but it still is the greenest

and most flowerful (is that a word?) that we have ever seen.

A desert Tortoise peeks out from his hiding spot

At the end of the week we moved down to Picacho Peak State Park for the 

weekend.   The campground is between Phoenix and Tucson and we find it to

be a nice place out of the cities to just relax.

It has only electric so show up with water and empty holding tanks.

I chose our site (B11) because it faced Northeast and keeps the afternoon sun

out of the front window.

The weather has been close to perfect and a cool breeze fills the Bus with

the scents of the desert.

Site B11

To our rear - looking west to Picacho Peak. 

Saturday morning we met J&K in Tempe for the Tempe Art Festival.

Tempe has a wonderful downtown area, and they close off several blocks plus side streets,

for the affair.    

It was a pretty large and eclectic event which had arts of all kinds including

musicians and street performers.

The lobster ladies struck a pose.

This group came marching down the street beating drums.

It looked like it might be a Native American group, but I'm not certain.

We will stay here in Picacho Peak Sunday night and then we will drive 40 miles

south to Catalina State Park in Oro Valley (north of Tucson)

where we'll stay put for 2 weeks and hook up with Ron & Maxine as well

as reunite with Jim & Kristi.

Tucson is one of our favorite places to visit because there is just sooooo much

to do there.   Hopefully I'll have some time to enjoy.

See you there.