Sunday, January 15, 2012 (Usery Mountain Regional Park, Mesa, AZ)

The sun came up this morning revealing cloudy skies...the forecast high was 68F so that doesn’t sound too bad.  But as the morning wore on, the thermometer wasn’t going above 60F...hmmm...think I’ll change out of my shorts into pants.

Dennis called shortly after 11:30...they are on their way out.  We walked up to the Nature Centre and were talking to one of the volunteers there when Dennis, Suzanne and Dunkin arrived.  After big hugs and a joyful greeting from Dunkin, Steve went with Dennis is the Jeep to our site while Suzanne, Dunkin and I went through the Nature Centre and took the path back.

We sat inside catching up and then decided to go to Fountain Hills for lunch...we wanted to show Dennis and Suzanne the area where we have spent the last couple of months and become so fond of.  Along the way, it actually rained a bit...sheesh...the nerve!

We had lunch on the balcony of the ‘All American Bar and Grill’, across the street from the fountain.  Yes, the balcony...under portable heaters...it was a big football weekend here in the States so it was pretty full, and noisy, inside as fans drank beer and watched the game on all of the big screen TVs.

There is a big car show in the area coming up next week, I believe, and a lot of people were out in their collector cars today...so we were entertained as all these beautiful cars drove by.  Very cool!

The fountain spouted precisely on the hour...its 3pm already!  Too bad it’s not sunny out today...it’s much more beautiful in the sunshine...oh well.

After lunch, we took Dunkin out for a bit of a walk along the grassy boulevard on Avenue of the Fountains and picked a couple of oranges from the heavily laden trees before piling back into the jeep.  On the way back, we took Panorama Drive around the park and showed Dennis and Suzanne some of the lovely homes in the area.  We also drove a little further north to Eagle View RV Resort and showed them where we stayed when we first arrived in the area.

Dennis and Suzanne are staying at Val Vista Village RV Resort in Mesa.  We stopped there and we got to see their Class A Motorhome...beautiful!  One of the nicest I have seen with plenty of large windows letting in lots of light...so many lack windows making them very dark inside.

It was about 6:30 when we got home...we’d had a wonderful afternoon with Dennis and Suzanne...and we are looking forward to spending a little more time with them over the next couple of days before we head off to Quartzsite.