Horseback Riding

One day Jacquelyn and I went horseback riding with the Hiking Club.  This was our last activity before the coronovirus pandemic struck.

Now we are on a Stay Home Order in Arizona too.  At Roadhaven they've not only closed all indoor activities and buildings, they closed the pools and are saying no visitors.  And in Arizona all non-essential stores are closed.  We're not supposed to gather with more than four.  Tianna and her family were coming down but now they can't.  Of course this is Arizona, so the Golf Courses are still open, being classified an essential activity

Jacquelyn and I will wait it out and will spend a lot of time together.  That's not so bad.  Hopefully no one in our family will get the virus.

Now back to the horseback riding.

 My horse was named Veedee.  He was good natured but a little stubborn.  I had to keep a tight rein on him.  He liked to trot whenever we went up a hill and that was fun.

 Jacquelyn's horse was named Pablo.  He was pretty good natured too, except he didn't like certain other horses and would try to pass other horses in the line; and did pass two when we crossed this river.

Another picture of Veedee after we were all done.  Good job Veedee and Pablo.  We got to go out on the trails for 90 minutes with them and saw some beautiful scenery.  Veedee and Pablo did all the work, we rode on top in saddles and enjoyed the trail.  Horses are a lot of fun.

Roger visiting in Arizona

Jacquelyn's brother Roger came down to Arizona from Minnesota for a visit to see his mom.

We all got together at Patti and Duane's for a family dinner.  On a different day they brought Gen out to our place in Roadhaven for a visit.

Winter home in Roadhaven

This is our place in Roadhaven RV Resort at 2054 Klamath Road.

 This is our home in the winter.  It's small but we like it because of the weather and all the activities to do at the resort.  On the right is the park model, then the Arizona room, and then a patio.

 The side patio with door to the shed and Jacquelyn's bicycle.

 Corner view showing side and back patios.

 Side patio table.

 Inside the shed with washer and dryer and hot water heater.

 View from the front door (which is on the side).

 Arizona room living room.

 Dining room with view out the front windows.

 Sitting room between the dining room and kitchen.

 Kitchen table.

 Kitchen.

 Bathroom 1.

 Master bedroom.

 Bathroom 2.

 Second bedroom.

 Golf course hole 6 with Superstition Mountains in the background.

Heron in one of the golf course lakes.

Painting House in Laredo Ranch

We had to paint our rental house in Laredo Ranch in San Tan Valley, Arizona.

 The home owners association sent us a letter (along with most of the other houses in Laredo Ranch) and said we needed to repaint.  I went out and inspected and it was long overdue.  There were some areas that were badly sun bleached and faded.

 So we hired a local painting contractor to paint the entire exterior.  These are the colors we ended up with.  It looks pretty good now.

 While down there I spotted a road runner on the fence top.

Then it made it's way up on the roof.

Hiking in Pinal County Arizona

Before all the trouble with the Coronovirus struck we did some hiking in the Arizona hills near Roadhaven.  Not as much as last season, but every other week or so Jacquelyn and I went on a hike with our Hiking Club.

 It's a lot of fun hiking in Arizona.  The terrain is beautiful, not big trees, but rocky rugged hills.  And the weather is almost always sunny.

 We're members of the Roadhaven Hiking Club and they have guides and sign-up sheets for 3 or 4 hikes a week.  You pick the one you want to go on and meet in the card room.  Then we carpool out to the trailhead.  The guides are all volunteers and they usually take us on a fairly fast pace.  We take walking sticks and I carry a backpack with water and snacks.

 Our first hike this year was Massacre Ridge.  This is where the Apaches ambushed a Spanish patrol returning from a gold mine and chased them up onto this ridge.  Eventually the Spanish were all killed or pushed off the ridge.

 Small nearby waterfall.

 As you can see the terrain is not smooth but very rocky and kind of treacherous if you get off the trail because of the rocks and cactus.

 Me by the waterfall.

 Our second hike was Picket Post hike.

 This hike was in some flats with trees.  But not the tall Douglas Fir trees like back home.  More like scrub trees.

 Lone Saguaro Cactus in the desolate desert scrub.

 The trail went alongside an ancient picket fence and hence the name of the trail.

 Dried up river bed.  Only runs with water after a big rain.

 These are young saguaro cactus that haven't developed arms yet.  This was on our third hike, I didn't write down the name.

 Fourth hike was down some sandy trails and around a rocky hill called the Bulldog.

 Saguaro Cactus usually grow up in a nurse plant to protect it until it gets big enough to stand on it's own.

 Interesting airplane contrails.

 Here's the Bulldog.

 Our fifth hike was out to a lake.  I'm ready to go.

 Ocotillo bush.

 Here's the lake.  I forgot the name.

 Our sixth hike was up through a saddle, around this mountain, and back down a different saddle.  I didn't write down the name of the hike.  We did also do a hike with Talitha and David, so this was really the seventh hike.

 Nice rocks.

 An older Saguaro Cactus.

 This is the terrain we were hiking through.  Arizona is not flat.

 Rocky formations.

 Miners needle off in the distance.  This was our eighth hike which our guide call the Meridian to Ironwood hike because we were lined up with those highways in the distance.

I love the hiking out here.  I think it's definitely my favorite activity.