Most of our Alpine SoCal group left the Cotton Lane RV Resort on Saturday since the Spring Training Rally is officially over 🙁  Everyone said their “see-ya-later’s” with a little sadness and lots of hugs 🙂

I was able to extend for a day in my same spot, but had to move over to another site in the park on Sunday so we can stay another week.  The weekly rate works out to be a pretty reasonable $28 per day after military discount.  We’re paid up through Saturday the 19th when we’ll have to decide where to go next.  At least five other Alpines also stayed on here: The Archer’s; Giddens; Peck’s; Langord’s; and Mathew’s.

On Saturday, I spent some time over at the RV park wash area, cleaning and detailing the Harley.  Stilla spent some time at the pool again with our daughter Jennifer and grandson Kaan who came by to visit again.  I also supervised Noel getting some windows replaced (below), some of his double-pane windows started fogging up which isn’t uncommon as our Alpine’s age gracefully.

We also got some pics of a roadrunner that was hanging around near our site.  He was pretty cool to watch as he went around looking for leftovers from the many BBQ’s and outside dining areas:

Sunday morning we finished packing up to change sites as I mentioned earlier.  Our new site was still occupied, so we had to wait for the current occupants to leave.  We hung out with some of our fellow Alpiner’s that are still here while we waited.

We moved over to our new site in the park and got set up in time to meet my mom, stepdad, daughter Jennifer, and grandson Kaan at the Salt River Fields stadium at Talking Stick before noon.  We bought tickets over a week ago for the Colorado Rockies vs. LA Dodgers game.

It was a good game, but the Rockies lost to the Dodgers (6-4) 🙁  Kaan really enjoyed the game, it was his first time.  He also got the opportunity to run the bases with other kids after the game.

Here’s Kaan (below) running around the bases.  He was pretty fast…

He was even on the jumbotron screen!

Kaan high-fived the Rockies mascot with his Colorado Rockies ‘giant foam hand’ as he ran across the home plate 🙂

After the game, we parted ways with my mom and stepdad, they had to get back to the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande.  But Jenny, Kaan, and Stilla weren’t ready to call it a day yet, so we convoyed over to nearby Papago Park (←link) where the Phoenix Zoo and Desert Botanical Gardens are located.

 

 

We parked and walked around the ponds and enjoyed the nice evening weather.

Here you can see Hunt’s Tomb (below), according to the Parks & Recreation website; “Hunt’s tomb is a white pyramid that is visible from almost any point in the park.  Entombed here is Governor George Wiley Paul Hunt, who set a national record by being elected to the first, second, third, sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th term as Arizona’s governor.  Hunt was born in 1859 and died in 1934.  Also entombed here are his wife, Helen, her parents, the J. W. Ellisons, and her sister, Lena Ellison.  From the tomb, one can enjoy a wonderful view in all directions, including a view of Hole-in-the-Rock.”

We decided to take the short hike up to the Hole-in-the-Rock:

Click (HERE) for more info from my friend Wikipedia™ on the Hole-in-the-Rock.

View of Papago Ponds from the Hole-in-the Rock (below).

And a blog post just isn’t complete without another fine Arizona sunset picture from our drive back to the RV Resort.

When Stilla and I returned to the RV Park, we found our core group of Alpiner’s outside their coaches continuing on with the tradition of Happy Hour and Hor d’oeuvres 🙂  We joined them again for a short while before turning in for the night.  What a great group those Alpine SoCal folks are!

Stay tuned… I’ll post again soon if anything interesting happens.