Mesa

Have been battling vertigo for the last week or so…not fun at all! Everything seems to fall apart once you retire!! 🙂

Not last weekend, but the weekend before (“not last night, but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door” — sorry, that is an oldie but goodie jump rope song from when we were kids so it just came to mind…LOL) we traveled to Mesa. The main reason was to attend a Carefree Arizona gathering that would take place on Saturday. We drove down on Friday taking the scenic, mountainous route through Payson. The drive is an hour longer than taking the freeway, but the scenery is just amazing!! We were at about 3100 feet in Camp Verde and got to about 7500 feet on the drive.

There are just layers and layers of mountain ranges on the drive and lots of switchbacks. Again there was still snow at the top. When we left Camp Verde the temps were in the 60’s and at one point it dropped down to the 40’s at the highest peaks.

We found an interesting restaurant in Payson – Macky’s Grill – that advertises the best burgers in the world! ….doesn’t every restaurant brag that??!! The burgers were good, not the most amazing, but good.

We continued on to Mesa and arrived there in mid-afternoon on Friday. We always stay at La Quintas because they accept dogs without any extra fees. The hotel was very nice, although surrounded by businesses, but sidewalks everywhere so I could walk Max quite nicely.

Saturday the Carefree reunion was at a RV Campground/Resort just about 10 miles from our hotel – Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort. The gathering was in one of the resort’s gathering rooms and was very nice. It was nice to see some of the people that we would only see in the summer in the middle of the winter. It was a good gathering. I did not take a lot of pictures, except for the softball tournament that was going on. This resort has about 40 softball teams — the resort has over 2700 sites…which is really big!!! But a few of us sat outside of the meeting room on the 2nd floor deck and watched the games. It was fun to see that going on in mid-January!

They not only had senior men’s leagues, but about 11 senior women’s leagues!!! What fun to still play softball!! This was an invitational tournament so the players were even better than regular senior players. It was so nice to sit and watch them play!! Some of the teams were really decked out like classic players with full matching uniforms, bags, etc. It was quite a hoot!

Oh and even though this place was too crowded for our liking to ever think of living at this specific resort, it was cool that every site had it’s own orange tree!

And it had a nice pool – this was 1 of 4 pools that they have.

Walking Max around the hotel was pretty nice with as many sidewalks and walking areas that are near the hotel. It was great to see some nice green grass (and it was real, not artificial turf as is used quite a bit here…) and blooming flowers. And of course the palm trees!!

Saturday night we went to a local place in Mesa, the Organ Stop Pizza. It was not really for the pizza, but for the entertainment. The focus of the entertainment is the 1930 world’s largest Wurlitzer organ. In fact the building was built specifically to fit the organ, including nearly 6000 pipes and four large turbine blowers to provide the large quantity of wind needed! This is the console and the pipes. (Pics from Organ Stop Pizza web site)

The organist plays a set for about 45 minutes and then takes a 10 minute break and starts back after the break. The organ rises up from the floor so it is elevated so all the patrons have a great view.

This organist took requests, including Phantom, which he indicated he has played over 20,000 times, included recording 3 versions…as he said to keep his sanity. He also played Thriller, which was amazing and Bohemian Rhapsody, which has been a new highly requested song since the release of the movie. As I said the pizza was ok, not amazing, but being a Saturday night the place was crazy with families and birthday parties!!! We stayed for 3 sets of his playing and the crowd definitely thinned out as the night went on.

Sunday we went to Yard House in the Westgate Entertainment Complex to meet Tim and Tammy — David used to work with Tim at Century Link. The complex was really nice with little park sitting areas, along with fountains and tons of restaurants. We had a great time catching up with Tim and Tammy and hope to see them again while we are in Arizona.

The drive back was great. We had thought of taking the freeway back, but decided to take the scenic route again and were so glad that we made that decision. The views were different from the drive there and just as amazing.