And about damn time!

After enduring the entreaties of dozens of clamoring fans (okay, a couple of people casually mentioned wondering what happened to the blog), I`ve finally reactivated this site. What happened? Why did I deprive my fans of their wonderful entertainment? Simple. Living in a retirement village in Arizona, while endlessly entertaining for us, would be dental-chair excruciating for anyone reading about it. I.E. Slept in til 7 a.m. again, played golf again (no, I won't tell the score, far too embarrassing), lunch, a couple hours of pool, or maybe a little more golf, socializing, dinner either in or out or maybe a potluck at the clubhouse, or maybe a hike in the morning and a show in the evening. Bored yet? We weren't, but it's a lot more fun to do than read about.

Our pad in Gold Canyon

Going to Golf in Gold Canyon Nov. 2012

View in Gold Canyon

One of the more photogenic things we did was the guided Wednesday morning hikes, so I'll throw in a representative sample here.



Typical scenery. Our guide, Rokus, a Canadian from Holland would lead us out into the desert around Superstition Mountain for several miles. He`s well over 70 and will walk your legs off.

 

Rokus and Mike


I have literally hundreds of these pictures and will gladly inflict them on any one of you who ask. If I were you, I wouldn't take the chance.

Okay, this was an event. Snow on Superstition Mountain!

The time from mid-October to the first of March passed all too quickly. We'll be back this fall, already got the reservation.

We left Gold Canyon March 1st, on our way to take care of pressing business in Kentucky. On the way we spent the night visiting a nephew in Austin, Texas.

Nephew Bruce and son Ben

Bruce's wife, Ellen and Ben

Automotive paint on fiberglass rodeo sculpture in Austin art museum.

We spent a couple of days in the Austin area and then headed North to Missouri and visited with son Zach. Again just a quick visit and off again to Kentucky. This was not a tourist kind of thing. We had to evict a tenant and get a house in some sort of shape to sell. No picnic on any count. We did find a reasonable accomodation at a campground in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. The eviction took over a week and then the fun began. Okay, the roof leaked in one area of the house, so they considered that to be a perfect crapground for the many dogs they'd managed to accumulate. Turds from fresh to fossilized 6 inches deep in places. After shoveling out the worst of the mess we contacted a real estate agent to see what we could get out of it. He quite graciously refused to even consider listing it and advised us to just put up signs declaring for sale by owner. Color us discouraged! However, we took his advice and within a day were approached by several people, some even somewhat sane and reasonable. One of the first prospective customers were Chris and Tanya Howell. Liz enlisted the help of their sons and friends to get the roof back in shape. Before we knew it, Chris was ramrodding the project and seriously contemplating ownership. Within a couple of days, they'd made their offer and we accepted. Not that that was the end of it. Now came the paperwork. It turns out it is indeed possible to do all that without professional help, you just have to learn everything the pro already knows. Many rounds of tentative paperwork and searching the net and calls to county bureaucrats, revising paperwork, rinse and repeat. Somewhere in here I ought to mention the weather. Frigid! Rain and snow. Everything we had vowed to leave behind forever. Next year we're staying in Arizona til April and then investigating south Texas and the gulf coast til the north decides to warm up.

Daughter Megan lives nearby so we made many trips to see her and growing faimly. It grew once more while we were in the area with the newest grandson, Enoch, her sixth (!).



Megan on March 18, 2013

Asher and Kitten

Genesis

Canaan

Solomon

Solomon



Ninevah, Austin, Skyler, Canaan



Usual busy life in the Ward house. Megan holding newborn Enoch, Skyler, Ninevah, Canaan, Genesis.



Enoch was born on April 9 (also great grandpa Richard Thelen's birthday). Photo on April 12.



Mike and Enoch

After 5 whole weeks in Kentucky, we wandered over to North Carolina to spend a week with Liz's gracious mom, Irmgard. First time we've stayed in someone's front yard. Interesting.

Irmgard, Liz and Mike on Pemberton St.

Irmgard and Liz in 5th wheel

Liz's sister Lorie and nephew Will with Liz in Durham, NC

 

Since we have a timeshare membership we decided to treat ourselves. We're now ensconced for a week at the Lakeview Golf Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia just south of the Pennsylvania border.  Two bedrooms, three baths. The living room has as much space as our entire trailer. So what do we do?  Complain about how far away the bedroom is. Nice golf courses, though.

Henry Clay Industrial Furnace from 1837 in Cooper's Rock State Park, West Virginia

We visited the Cooper's Rock West Virginia State Park and saw the Henry Clay Industrial Furnace.

View from Cooper's Rock

 

On Cooper's Rock Lookout

Liz here. Mike asked me to read his blog and I added pictures. I loved Gold Canyon and played golf every afternoon with "Cow Girls" once I realized they played 7 days a week. The Healthy Eating   Group was my second most favorite. I quit eating dairy after thinking more about food.  I learned to play Pinochle and we played most Tuesday nights. The pool is gorgeous and I went to water aerobics on Fridays. Yoga teacher, Leigh Morton became a dear friend and a huge reason to return there this November.