Ahhhhh warm Phoenix sunshine at last

I absolutely love that they disguise the cell phone towers into palm trees. Very clever !!!
Ansel and his family raced at the Phoenix Fairgrounds in 1923 and 24. His brother Bailey was the jockey then. The fairgrounds are in the same location on the corner of 17th and McDowell. The house they lived in was just behind these grand stands. The race track in gone now and it appears that they use the grandstands for concerts and such. Ansel says they had the first auto race on this track in 1919.

We stayed with friends Janine and Vance Simms and their daughter Shayla. They were absolutely wonderful hosts. I was pretty excited that maybe I would get to see baby Blake Joseph before we had to leave... but he wasn't ready... so I'll have to wait until next time.

Shayla has her own computer key board that plays learning games on the big monitor, she's very good at them.

Janine and Vance in front of their lovely home.

Janine and Cyndy me. I knew Janine and her family from Burns. She's an Oregon State alum and has been living in the Phoenix area since 2001. It really was a great visit. It was so nice to catch up.

Beautiful precious Shayla in their back yard. Just before we hit the road again. Oh and on the way out of their neighborhood, we stopped and bought a 20 lb bag of oranges, really delicious oranges for only $10.00. I bet there is 40 oranges in this bag. Amazing...

Catching up with Nita and Tom in Phoenix

Nita Wilkes Russell, Martina's niece lives just north of Phoenix in the desert burg of Wittmann with her husband Tom. It was a bonus to our trip that we were able to make connections with Nita and her husband at their very cool Southwest Hacienda. It was a pleasant time, and Ansel just beamed.

Over the last couple of years as I've been sorting through "stuff" at the OB Riley house, I have made little collections for every one who I thought might be interested in having their memories jogged by reading the notes and cards etc and seeing pictures that they have sent Martina and Ansel over the years. I know it was fun for me after my mother passed away, to read the 20-30 year old letters from me that my dear mother had saved all those years. So I as I have been sorting I've been keeping envelopes of memories to give to the appropriate persons. Giving Nita her envelopes was just the first installment I told her, since there still is so much sorting to do in Bend. After all I'm sorting through 90 years of pack-rat-itis.

It was fun to share the Hellos and greetings to Nita that old classmates friends from Harney County had passed on with me.

Nita shows Uncle Ansel her remuda. I was very envious of the very efficient pipe pens and sheds that they have been able to build together to keep their horses in. Tom is obviously a very good welder, he built all the square panels.

We enjoyed a wonderful bbq dinner, in their rustic southwest great room. I missed the sunset by just a few minutes the sky was still purple of the cactus and neighbors adobe home. There's lot's of elbow room where they live, no side walks or street lights, just coyotes and desert flowers, it's just the way I pictured AZ to be...

That's Amore

Yesterday we went to The Venetian... it is amazing how they can create a life size city within a building. It feels like Venice, (for someone who's never been there) The only thing missing was the pigeons. The Gondola operators... (don't know the correct title for them ;o), sang to their passengers as they guided the gondola through the canals.

In the piazza (town square) we are entertained with a mini-opera by the street performers. Their voices were incredible, the live musicians accompanying them, are to the left of the stage. There was also a juggler, clown, and a mine on stilts.

Sitting on the steps of the living statue.
Security persons in the Venetian dress in Italian uniforms.

This was the living gardens in the Palazzio area... there is a beautiful woman in there that slinks and creeps around in most sensual way... Ansel was enamored with the attention. In the pic below they are waving goodbye to each other.

Jill's Condo

Jill in her quaint - perfect size (for me anyway) kitchen, having her last cup of Joe and looking pretty perky for getting up at 4AM before flying off to Tampa.

Hey Jill, It was a very nice birthday treat for us to come visit, Thanks for having us. I just hope we left soon enough, so you'll let us come back :o)

The lanai off of the living room is really a bonus room, it's about 12'x12' and the boys love it.

The pic below is me putting the dining room set together... It looked pretty posh after it was done.

And below... the finished project...

And did I mention the Pool and Hot Tub !!!! There are two separate pool and bbq/recreation areas. We used the hot tub every night and never saw another sole out there, it was pretty sweet. There is also a exercise/weight room that has more equipment than Body Wise.

Can't wait to come back when it's just a tad warmer... Hmmmmm isn't there a NASCAR race here in March???? (I'm not complaining about the weather, I know what I'm not missing in Oregon)

Jill's boys

Meet Charlie and Bruce, Jill's two boys that share her abode. Charlie is a Siamese who is in the neighborhood of 13 years old, he was born in Burns, Oregon. Charlie is allowing Ansel to share his bed and nap with him.

Boy number two is Bruce who could be an angora sweater - his hair is sooooo long and thick. He is relatively young and joined Jill and Charlie when she was living in Ontario, OR in the last year.

Happy B-Day Cyndy @ Excalibur

For my birthday we went to the "Tournament of Kings" dinner show at Excalibur. It's set in King Arthur's Roundtable days.

It's pretty darn neat. They use horses, stunt men, pyrotechnics and gymnasts to to deliver a mini dramatization of Knight's of the Round Table. The seating sections represent Kingdoms, and each has a respective Knight/King on horseback whom each section cheers and shouts and bangs their tables in support of. We ended up sitting in the Dragon section which was reigned by the evil king, he rode a pretty fancy black Andalusian and his horsemanship was superb. Our dinner is soup served in a bowl, and a dinner of a whole Cornish hen, broccoli, and taters with no eating utensils except the ones we were born with, our fingers. The only luxury is a large wet nap to wash our hands with after eating with our fingers.

There's plenty of action, eventually a jousting competition, dancing maids, and an incredible gymnast. An appearance or two by Merlin the Wizard, and from start to finish we are kept in stitches by a height challenged Court Jester. There are some pretty scary scenes when the "Evil One" sneers and jeers and makes that evil laugh makes your hair stand on end and some pretty scary fireworks go off.

At the beginning when they are doing their announcements and instructions for engaging the crowd. They put the spot light on a young man military man who had just returned from IRAQ and introduced him and welcomed him home safely. Jill and I started the standing ovation for him which was very moving. (Thank you Lord for our men and women who have and who are still serving and fighting for our freedom)

Then they went around and mentioned Happy Birthdays and Happy Anniversaries of those who were celebrating in their respective Countries (sections) and gee, they even knew it was my birthday... ???? imagine that???

Hoover Dam on the Colorado River

Sunday afternoon we took a drive down to check out Hoover Dam. This picture is of Lake Mead at 65mph out the car window.

Monument to the "Scalers" who built the dam

The lake and the Colorado River divides Arizona and Nevada, we joked as we drove across that Jill and Ansel were in AZ, and I was in NV. AZ is in their own timezone. Part of the year they are in mountain time zone, and the other they are Pacific.

Jill and Ansel

She's so cute.

There really weren't many places you could pull over to look at things. The parking lot near the dam was $7.00 just to find out we didn't want to pay $30.00 ea for a tour of the dam, or $10.00 ea to see the Visitors Centor . Would have thought there would have been a free Visitors Center to tell you the history of it. I wonder how many more miss out on the history, because the prices. I can see the price they charge for the tour, but for our parking fee, they should give us a little history for that.

Sunday morning

Sunday morning thanks to our nifty little GPS Navigator or perhaps a little divine intervention... we went to a really neat spirit filled church right close to Jill's house. It was very down to earth and everyone was super friendly and warm. Jill thinks it just might be her new church home. Calvary Chapel Green Valley, turns out their Pastor is from Boston, MA. He had a couple of anecdotes from there that really made a connection.

And after filling our souls, then we needed to fill our bellies. Jill took us to her new fav breakfast place where they treat you like family, "The Griddle" on S. Eastern Ave. in Henderson.

Proprietor Femamzadeh and her brother Baja" make you feel special with their care and the decor, flavored with Italian accents is very warm and comfortable.

Jill and our server "Baja", Mr. Personality himself ;0) In addition to feeling like family, and the great service and attention, the food was excellent !!