March 2006                                                click here to go to our home page
                                                                                                                                   click here to go to "What we've been doing..."

Last month we told you about some of the "alternative activities" at Palm Creek like marshmallow golf.  This month we at least watched some of the other ones, even if we were not participants.  The park has several softball teams and they held a tournament over the first weekend of the month.  Then the next weekend was the annual pickleball tournament.  What is "pickleball" you ask?  The game is played with a solid paddle and a 4-inch plastic 'whiffle' ball on a court similar to a tennis court, only about 1/4 the size.  Its like playing ping-pong while standing on the table.  We have several hundred players here in our park and about a hundred more came from parks in the Tucson and Phoenix areas for the tournament.
 
Some of the ladies playing in the Palm Creek Pickleball Tournament Another alternative activity....lawn bowling.  And its not as easy as it looks because the balls are not perfectly round and are weighted.  Its played by a very active and large group at Palm Creek. And then there is shuffleboard...played by another large group on our 16 shiny and waxed courts.
Believe it or not, we even have an airport at Palm Creek.  There is quite a group of radio-controlled flyers, but only one the day I went out with my camera. Palm Creek's team serving up chili at the Arizona State Chili Championship at Rodeo Park in Casa Grande. Sunset on Honeysuckle Lane at Palm Creek...the calm before the 
storm on March 9.

Palm Creek entered a team in the Arizona State Chili Championship.  We weren't among the tireless workers, but were willing participants at the cookoff.  We paid $3 for a cup and spoon and then when we went to each participating booth, they gave us a ladlefull of their chili.  While we waited in line at the next booth, we savored the chili from the last one, until we'd made our way around the Rodeo Park in Casa Grande.  At the end, we were to deposit our ticket in a jar at the booth of our favorite.  Palm Creek won the award for "The People's Choice" and for "Showmanship."  Our booth was quite large and had a display of many of the arts and crafts made in our various workshops.

144 days without rain......a record for this part of Arizona.  That has made our environment pretty dusty and caused many people, including Tom,  some allergy problems.  But, on Friday, March 10 it got cold and cloudy and in the evening it started to rain in Casa Grande.  It didn't stop until Sunday morning, except for a few minutes on Saturday afternoon when it turned to hail.  Our neighbor's rain gauge said we got 2.75 inches, and according to the TV weatherman, we broke the record for the amount of rain in one day on that date.  There was little traffic around our place and all our neighbors stayed curled up inside for the day, watching the TV reports of "Breaking News"....it was RAINING!!!!  Scottsdale and some of the northern suburbs of Phoenix are at a higher elevation and they had snow in their swimming pools.  The ski resorts a little further north had up to 50 inches of snow and opened a few days later for the first time all winter.  Here in the park, our golf course became a large lake, which canceled golf for Sunday and Monday.  But Sunday turned into a glorious sunny day with air so clear we could see for miles and enjoyed the view of snow-capped mountains to the north of us.
 
 
BREAKING NEWS!!!!! It hadn't rained in 144 days, but on March 10 it started and rained for about 36 hours straight.  We got 2.75 inches before it stopped. This is the view from Palm Creek's north gate looking towards Phoenix the day after the "big storm" dumped snow on the ground down to about 2000 feet elevation.  Friends who drove up to the north side of Phoenix reported seeing pickup trucks driving around with snowmen in the back. This is the view of Superstition Mountain from the parking area at the Safeway International LPGA Tournament.  The course is on the other side of the first hill and the view was much the same, but with lush green grass and palm trees in the foreground.  No cameras were allowed on the course, so this will have to do!

On March 17, Mary and some of the ladies from the park went up to the Phoenix suburb of Gold Canyon to watch the golfers play in the Safeway International LPGA Tournament at the Superstition Springs Country Club.  It was a glorious day for golf at an inspiring course.  The lady golfers made it look so easy as they hit their balls 300 yards off the tee.  With all the lessons they learned, do you suppose the Palm Creek Ladies Day scores will see an improvement?

As we got closer to the end of March everybody began to realize that our winter stay in the desert was coming to an end.  That brought a round of special "happy hours" hosted by various groups of friends, neighbors and aquaintances...lots of fun get-togethers.  One day we went out to lunch with the Nichitas and the McGoverns to the "Gallopin' Goose" in Coolidge, AZ.   Cathy Nichita had read somewhere that it served really good food and we had been joking for weeks that in spite of its not-so-great look from the outside, that we needed to give it a try.  So, one day it became our adventure for the week.  It turned out to be a pretty busy place for lunch and the food was good as well...cooked to order on the grill right outside the back door of the bar.  It also was interesting to learn that the "Gallopin' Goose" is where Waylon Jennings got his start playing music with his band while also working as a DJ for a local radio station.  From Coolidge he moved on to Phoenix and as they say, the rest is history!
 
 
Not all Grandmas sit and knit!  Our neighbors Linda Kanable and Connie Shafer are "hot chicks on wheels" around Palm Creek.  Linda also plays pickleball and golf and Connie is a water volleyball addict and had several solos in the Palm Creek Chorus Spring concert. Tom with Don and Bev McGovern and Peter and Cathy 
Nichita after enjoying our lunch at the "Gallopin' Goose" in Coolidge...the place where Waylon Jennings got his start.
Tom and neighbor, Lorne, played a game of golf-ball-toss on our street during one of our happy hour get-togethers......another of our "alternative activities."
Before we scattered in many directions, there were a few last neighborhood get-togethers. Everybody bring your chair; sit, visit, eat and drink till it gets too dark and cold - which is getting later and later each day. One day the sky got really dark, the wind picked up and then we could see a double rainbow off in the distance.

We finished out the month of March with two annual events.  First we attended the Pinal County Fair on their "free Seniors Day."  It seemed a small affair by our standards as we toured the midway, animal barns and the vendor area.  There was some free entertainment AND we watched the pig races!  Our second event was the "End of Season" party at Palm Creek.  The main parking lot was taken over by the celebration as we joined with our neighbors for dinner and live entertainment.  Our neighborhood is thinning out and they tell us that close to 400 rigs were to leave the park on Saturday, April 1.  We'll be staying for a few more days and then heading east ourselves.....a great winter season in Arizona, for us, has come to an end.
 
 
They're off and running!  Four pigs race around the track at the Pinal County Fair Give or take, there were about 1500 of us gathered in the parking lot for a BBQ pork dinner and live rock-'n-roll to end the season at Palm Creek. A view of the first tee at Palm Creek...
We'll be looking forward to returning again in the fall.

 

                                 For those of you that are interested, our son Reid, who is in Costa Rica working as a white-water-rafting guide,
                                 sent some photos and commentary for us to share.  They have been added to our website at:
                               www.oocities.org/maryw_43537/reidscostarica.html