March brought us the weather we'd been waiting all winter for....warm and sunny!   Our son, Reid, was here to share it with us for a few days.  He was getting organized for a summer of rafting in the US.  One Sunday afternoon we drove to the Phoenix suburb of Glendale to visit the recently opened Cabela's store.  We spent quite a while checking out all sorts of items inside the store and all of us made some purchases.  Reid bought himself a new house...a nice tent!  Tom and I picked up a few items for an upcoming adventure to the Grand Canyon.  In the parking lot we checked out a display of campers belonging to a group called "Sisters on the Fly." All of the trailers were "vintage" models owned by women of all ages who enjoy travel and fly fishing....an interesting group of people and vehicles.  Back at Palm Creek, Reid re-stocked, re-packed and re-organized his trailer and then moved on to the Apache Indian Reservation northeast of Phoenix to work on the Salt River.  The water flow this year has been great and the rafters have been very busy.  Hopefully, we'll have another visit or two from Reid in April.
 
 

Reid and Tom found time for a few rounds of golf while Reid was visiting us.	A warm sunny day and lots of space helped Reid with his project of going through all his "stuff."  The yellow kayak was his airline baggage returning from Costa Rica.	"Sisters on the Fly" had quite an exhibit of vintage trailers and camping equipment at Cabela's.

The "season" was coming to an end at Palm Creek, so the round of "final events" began.  We attended the annual Chorus Concert and enjoyed the talents of the singing group.  The Tennis Club held their "annual meeting" and Mary was elected secretary for the coming year.  The Tennis Club monthly social was a B-B-Q, and as always we had lots of excellent choices for side dishes and deserts, too.  The annual Palm Creek Car Show gave us an opportunity to reminisce...lots of music and cars from the 50's and 60's.  One evening, Mary and many others who volunteer in various areas in the park were treated to a buffet dinner.  Some of our neighbors began to leave for their other homes so there was a round of farewell happy hours and dinners.  One of the neighbors lives in the state of Washington and is an avid fisherman.  He always brings lots of his frozen catch with him, so we had our annual neighborhood salmon bake before people started their departures.  Yum!   Tom's bridge group held a "Bridge B-Q"...they played bridge all afternoon and then at 5:00 began a feast with spouses included for the meal...another tasty event!
 
 

Just a section of the Palm Creek Chorus...they put on a good show with an "Around the World" theme.	The guys traded their tennis racquets for spatulas and cooked up some tasty burgers and dogs for the tennis club members.	A couple of good looking Chevys...Tom once had a '61 almost like this-except his was a convertible.	Only in Arizona could you have six tables of bridge on your patio in mid-March.

Alice and Dick Wells - our neighbors from Washington.  She quilts and he cooks, fishes, and plays golf.	The neighbors lined up to sample all the "sides" and especially the salmon at Dick's and Alice's "salmon bake."

Along with all our usual golf and tennis we found time to enjoy some other outdoor activities away from the park.  We'd heard that thanks to the damp fall weather, the wildflowers were quite prolific.  So, we drove to Picacho Peak State Park a short way south of us.  They greeted us at the gate with "You should have been here two weeks ago!"  Oh, well...it was still a nice day to be out in the park.  We did see a few blooms, but we also saw evidence that there had been many, many more before we got there.  Then, one Saturday afternoon our neighborhood gang gathered at the Eloy, AZ Municipal Airport and Skydive Arizona.  Linda Kanable had celebrated her 60th birthday a few weeks before, so she talked Connie Shafer into joining her in a celebratory jump.  They had a great time jumping and the rest of us had a great time watching!
 
 

We found lots of cactus on our visit to Picacho Peak State Park.  We can see the peak from our park, but its much more scenic up close.	We had missed the "peak" of the wildflowers, but we did find a few poppies still showing their colors.

Connie and Linda took a few minutes to envision what it would be like jumping from the plane at 12,000 ft.	It looks like a tangle of rope and nylon, but it brought Linda down to the ground quite gently.	Connie was on a "high" on the ground.  It was a fun jump!

We said a "sad good-by" to several friends during the month but also had some visitors.  The advantage of being RVers is that our neighborhood is always changing and there is always something going on.   On our last weekend of March we had a spur-of-the-moment "CORN" dinner...that stands for "Clean Out the Refrigerator Night."  Everybody brought the meat they still had and threw together some other ingredients.  We ended up with a great grilled dinner and a fun evening to end the month.   There will be a few of us hanging around through April, so we won't be lonely.
 
 

Here's Tom with our Bounder Buddies from Medina, OH, Ed and Judy Lichtenberg.  They stayed at Palm Creek for a while this winter, but headed home to snow around mid-March.	Our Canadian buddies, Bev and Don McGovern, stayed at Palm Creek with us for 6 winters, but recently moved on to a park in Apache Junction.  We'll miss them	Doing what we do best.......eat!  The neighborhood got together March 29 for the  CORN (Clean Out the Refrigerator Night) dinner.

Mary and Tony Campbell, Bounder Buddies from the Detroit area,  made a return visit to us on March 26.  I didn't get a photo of Tony on his new bike when he arrived from the park where they were staying in Mesa...	...but this is the bike.  Tony rode about 55 miles to get here.  He's "in training" for a ride this summer from San Diego to Savannah, GA.  (www.fullercenterbiketrip.com)	Our other visitors this month have been the many doves.  They will build their nests anywhere with a minimum amount of straw.  One day they chose Mary's golf bag. There's a disappointed momma bird somewhere!