Thursday, January 5, 2012 (McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ)

We had our usual relaxing start to the day...after my third cup of coffee, I was ready for a little breakfast.  Steve had already showered and joined me at the table with his bowl of cereal.  We were going to go for a hike today but first a little work.  Steve headed outside to work on the sliders...he is going to clean and put a treatment on the rubber seals.  While he was doing that, I did the dishes and puttered around inside and then showered. 
 

Steve had quite a time working on the sliders...not an easy job.  After spending a couple of hours and doing two sliders, he said “that’s it for today...the rest can wait until tomorrow”.  Now it was time to head out for a hike.

After loading the backpack with the binoculars, water and a couple of snacks, we were on our way...it was shortly after 11:30.  We started off at a trailhead just beside our campsite that joined up with a main trail.  Steve had the map and as we reached trail junctions, we’d check our route.  We took lots of pictures along the way.

Interesting place to build a nest...

Nice bruise on my arm...results of my flu shot yesterday...

                         Big cactus...

Junction on the trail...

Beautiful desert scenery...

Ahhhh....finally back to the campground...

Two hours and just shy of 6 miles, we were back home...tired and hungry.  What a great hike! The scenery was beautiful.

After a quick lunch, Steve went to get some firewood from the camp host while I prepared appetizers.  We are having company for happy hour this afternoon.  Eric and his wife, Linda, are from Seattle and are in Scottsdale visiting friends.  We met Eric back in July, 2010 when we were in Anacortes, Washington...just starting on our new lifestyle.  He was there in their motorhome while Linda was in Costa Rica...we had seen Linda from a distance but she left shortly after we arrived.  We have stayed in touch with Eric over the past 18 months...it is so nice that our paths are crossing again...we are looking forward to seeing them.

They arrived at 4:00 and we sat outside enjoying the late afternoon sunshine with wine/beer and appies.  It was great catching up with them.  As the sun went down behind the mountain, it got quite cool so Steve lit the campfire.  We sat out for a bit longer and since Eric and Linda wanted to see some of our pictures before they left, we went inside and hooked up the laptop to the TV so we could easily show them.  There is no way that we could show them all...we would have been there for weeks...but we wanted to show them Goosenecks State Park. 

It was just after 6:30 when after hugs and handshakes, they headed off.  We’d had a great visit.  It’s so interesting connecting with folks that we have met on our journey...and we have met so many wonderful people!