Wishful Thinking

There are trees in my laundry room.

The weather has been so warm lately, we can't help but think that spring has sprung. Yet, I hesitate to say it out loud in fear that I may jinx it. We came home from a Costco run with 2 dwarf fruit trees and Stoneridge Guy was anxious to get them planted. After letting them acclimate for a couple of days outside he started digging. Unfortunately, the ground is still too frozen to dig deep enough for planting. Even though our highs are in the upper 40's, this morning it was only 16*.

StoneRidge Guy has finished getting our condo in the Fairway Meadows ready to rent. With that chore completed, he has started the trim upstairs. When that's done it will be time to carpet.

Now that I have taken over the temporary duties of the StoneRidge Newsletter, I thought that I would post a corresponding story on same day. That way those of you that have high speed internet can see pictures. So here goes...

The course is open!

Troy is back as assistant pro and will be joined by Josh Gold who starts on March 15th. Josh is from Montana and also worked at the Villa de Paz Golf Course in Phoenix. The pro shop is hoping they can play a larger role in the Men and Ladies leagues, helping any way they can. Troy sent out the preliminary tournament schedule and if you didn't get the email you can see it on the StoneRidge website. Click on the blue "StoneRidge" and it will direct you there. Make sure to check out the "Member" area and specifically the directory to be sure that all of the information is up to date.

The course is open to the public even though it's walking only, but only until March 1st. The carts will come out and so will more golfers. StoneRidge Guy, Mac and Bam play almost daily. I join them about twice a week. That will increase as the weather warms up. As it is, by 3pm you have to start stripping off jackets because it feels so warm in the sun.

The Grill

We have a new Grill manager. Ray Dilcox was introduced to everyone last Thursday. He was the owner of the Priest River Inn. Many of you will remember the Italian restaurant on Main St. in Priest River. He explained his decision to close the Inn and how fortunate he feels that this opportunity was available. He is scheduled to be working full time as of March 1st with the Grill scheduled to open with a limited menu and hours on April 1st. His first act was to tear up the old menu. He plans to add more variety and quality along with some of his "best sellers" from past restaurants and weekly specials.

He gave me a sneak peak at the new menu lunch and dinner menu. All I have to say is that I'm ready to try all of them. From my short conversation with him I feel he understands our needs and is working hard to make The Grill a place where we want to frequent.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

The view from our deck

Lake San Souci has been serenading all of us that live on her shores. Her moans, groans and burps are so loud they can be heard inside the house. I tried to take a movie so you could hear it for yourself. Of course, she was quiet when as I went down to take it. I'll keep trying

The ice is still thick enough to walk on once you get past the 12-60" of thin ice along the edge of the lake. I threw a branch out and Maggie went out and brought it back. What can I say, she's obsessed.

The 16th Fairway

The Motor Coach's dog park got some trees.

Someone's going to get a big storage shed.

From the sounds of it, all of you that headed south for the winter got all of our weather. Rain in the desert and plenty of snow in the mid west and the east coast. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of those ground hogs that didn't see their shadows on Feb. 2nd were right and we won't have 6 more weeks of winter.

'Til next time...

Want some Cheese with that Whine?

It appears that our dear Stoneridge Pal Billy has gotten his nose tweaked. He feels he wasn't given as much attention as our other friends. "They all got pictures on the blog..." He didn't. Boo Hoo, Wahh, wahh, wahh!

Consider this my apology.
Don't forget to pause the "Mytunes" on the sidebar.

A funny town called Quartzsite

The day after the golf tournament in Phoenix, StoneRidge Pals and our hosts Patty & Jim were moving back to Quartzsite, AZ. If you aren't into RV'ing you probably have never heard of it.

"Quartzsite is west of Phoenix at the junction of Interstate 10 and US 95, near the Colorado River. The community has a Sonoran Desert setting. The nearby Kofa, New Water and Plomosa Mountains provide topographic relief while the Colorado River lies only 17 miles to the west. Quartzsite was established in 1867 on the site of old Fort Tyson, a privately built structure constructed in 1856 by Charles Tyson for protection against Indian raids. Named Quartzsite because quartz was occasionally found in the area, the name evolved to Quartzsite through an error in spelling. The Town is currently is 130 sq. miles."

Most of the time this small town is just that...small. But come here in January and February and it's a sea of RV's, trailers and campers as far as you can see. All here to see the largest swap meet in the world. Several StoneRidge motor coach residents stay here in the winter, this is where we came to spend 2 more days.

They are renting the lot from Sandi and Gordon which is in a neighborhood called Rainbow Acres. Once we got set up here they gave us a tour of the town. There isn't much left to see since most of the vendors have moved on along with the RV's. A rainstorm was moving through town, so we decided to just head back and play cards.

The next day brought sunny skies so we headed out to the desert and Kofa's Palm Canyon Trail. Jim had always wanted to hike so off we went. 18 miles south of Quartzsite is the road that takes you to the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and the Palm Canyon Trail.

Here you see us at the base of the trail. It's a short hike up to find the elusive palms. To be specific, the trees are California Fan Palms. They are not fruit bearing and are thought to be descendents of palms growing in this region during the last periods of North American glaciation.





The palms are able to survive in the narrow side canyons where direct sunshine is limited but some moisture is available.
We managed to time our arrival perfectly as the suns rays crossed into the canyon where we could see the palms.
Then it was back to Quartzite where we stopped to see some of the vendors and to wet our whistles at Beer Bellys.



Back at the coach we passed the rest of the day playing a twist on horse shoes.

The next morning we left our friends for home. After 2 days of driving, we arrived back at StoneRidge. We went from 80 degrees to 40, but not a lick of snow on the ground. While we were gone the warm temps at home melted what little snow remained on the ground. Even the snow belt between Spirit Lake and Rathdrum is clear of snow.

The course is now officially open and Stoneridge Guy and golf Pal Mac play every chance they get. We all wonder, will this mild weather hold through until spring has sprung or will winter surprise us with a fresh blanket of snow?

Winter Road Trip: 1st Annual StoneRidge Golf tournament at Villa de Paz!

Did I ever tell you how much I miss wearing shorts?

The next leg of our Winter Road Trip took us to Phoenix Arizona where we met up with Stoneridge Pals Jim & Patty. We stayed with them in their motor coach at the Dessert Shadows RV park about 20 minutes from Villa de Paz golf club. Maggie got to play with her sister Sadie and stretch her legs. There were about 6-8 other Stoneridge coaches also staying there for the tournament. We had a mini reunion there and then followed that up with a pre-tournament party hosted by Harriett and Art at their home in Anthem. Nearly everyone was there! It was great to see everyone after 4 months away.

February 7th, 2010 the 1st Annual StoneRidge Golf Tournament at Villa de Paz commenced... and I got to wear shorts! We couldn't have asked for better weather; the sun was shinning with a few puffy clouds in the sky and temps nearing 70. Sign ins started at 8am where Cal & Vickie manned the sign in table. They did such a great job; everything was so organized. There were 52 players teeing off at the 9am shot gun start.

By 1:30pm most of us were through with our round and heading over to Cal & Vickie's house off of the 15th fairway. Now the party really started! With wine and beers to wet everyone's whistle after a day in the sun, it was tough trying to talk to everyone. After lunch was served Cal & Vickie announced the winners and gave out prizes.

Please enjoy the slide show then you can read all of the stats below. (don't forget to pause the "Mytunes" in the sidebar if viewing this directly from the blog.)




Attendees:
Terry & Truman Bennett
Jackie Baldwin
Charles Bently & Brinley Thomas
Mary & Steve Bradford
Ed & Brenda Brown
Cal & Vickie Coates
Larry & Cindy Cunningham
Rusty & Marci Davidson (Marci just came to eat)
Jerry & Darlene Gage (Darlene came to eat too!)
Fred & Thayle Ghio
Harriet & Art Epstein (Art couldn't play due to a hand injury, so guess what he did?)
Judy & Art Evans
Joe & Judy Gregonis
Jacquie & Dick Hawkins
Pat Howell
Val Kasper
Adair & Bruce Kelly
Neal & Betty Knappenberger
Diane & Aaron Knight
Sandi & Gordon Mizell
Jim & Patty Mosier
Hirro Murakami & Yoko Pizzo
Ferrick Nelson
Jim Pearson (he will be returning to Stoneridge in the Spring to teach)
Terry & Gabe Richter
Stew & Diane Stewart
Rick & Linda Swindell
Mary Ellen & Ron Taylor
Diane & Terry Walton (Terry's still recovering from shoulder surgery. He hung out with Art and also came to eat)
Buck & Sharon Wyles

The tournament was so successful I wouldn't be surprised that a lot more come next year.

Winter Road Trip: Los Angeles

The evening of January 31st found us in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA where we stayed with my parents. Here we were also able to see my son Michael and sister Caroline and her husband Kurt. Catching up over dinners were the main events. Days were spent trying to get Michael's car fixed. The 2-1/2 days in the Valley flew by as we were now scheduled to stay with StoneRidge Guy's parents in Glendale, CA.

Dinner on February 2nd begins our stay with Val & Carlos. Wednesday it was lunch, a movie and dinner at their favorite steak house. Here we were also joined by the twins Casey & Ryan.

Our real adventure started the following day as Val booked reservations for lunch at the Getty Center. We had to take the 405 freeway hoping that we would miss the morning rush hour.

 

It was actually pretty smooth sailing most of the way there. These are sites were are very happy to not see again.

Maggie has been with us every stop along the way and has never been a problem. Forgetting we were in California, we were advised by the parking attendant of the Getty that dogs were not allowed to be kept in the car. (Even though we would be parked underground in 60 degree temps). They refunded our money to park and we were off trying to find a place to park the car. It was an impossible task as any street close enough to walk to the Getty had restricted parking. We were tempted to park and call a cab when I spotted a dog grooming place at the next corner. Problem solved! They were able to take Maggie and keep her for the 3-4 hours needed for us to take our tour and have lunch and she would be all cleaned up when we picked her up.

Back to the Getty we went to begin our day. For the 6 years that I worked at Lithographix, The Getty Center was one of the accounts that I worked. I could tell you everything that was going on there, but I never did go to see it... until now.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy so the views were not as pretty as I know they can be.

 

We took the garden tour.

  

 

  

  

  

 

It's amazing how detailed the architect and landscape architects were when they designed this museum. We did get to see some art too, but photos just don't do them justice.

Our few hours spent here just isn't enough to take in everything there is to see here. But if you have a day in Los Angeles with nothing to do, I would highly recommend the Getty Center.

Friday took us further south to our old stomping grounds, San Pedro. There we stayed with old neighbors and great friends Bill and Jeanette. Steve and Bill went to Temecula to play golf while Jeanette and I got rained on all day. Sunday was the SuperBowl and Bill set out quite a spread. Just hanging out and spending time with our friends was so great. Our trips down south just don't give us enough time to spend with everyone.

Monday came much too quickly and we were off to Arizona.

Winter Road Trip: Oregon & Sacramento

After 2 record breaking winters in the Inland Northwest, we thought we would be smart this year. We would plan our trip south in January and miss the really cold weather. So wouldn't you know it, we end up with a mild winter instead. We left StoneRidge on January 26th with no snow on the ground and temps in the low to mid 40's.

So our first stop was Portland to see Steve's long time friend Bill and his wife Cordelia. Arriving in time for band practice with the Moderator Band, Stoneridge guy and me were able to sit in on drums and guitar. I could have played all night!

Day 2 in Portland we were able to play 18 holes at Langdon Farms Golf Club. Even though half of the holes were on temporary greens it gave us a day to practice before our golf tournament in Arizona 2 weeks later.

Our last day we went to visit another one of Stoneridge Guys childhood friends Tom at his home in Banks. He has 20 acres with chickens, cows and of course a dog.

 

Tom's house in Banks, Oregon

 

 The chickens

 

The cows. The middle one will be dinner this summer.

 Tom's dog Riley

Riley tolerated Maggie enough so they could chase sticks and balls all afternoon. After a crab & egg breakfast, Tom and his friend Marcello took us to the coast for a bit of a tour of Girabaldi Bay and Tom's house on the Wilson River, in Tillamook.

 

Tom's house is a short distance from the famous 

Tillamook Cheese factory

Tom's house sits only about 100 yards from the Wilson River where guide boats are seen frequently fishing for Steelhead, Sturgeon and Salmon depending on the season.

 

Maggie went exploring down at the river's edge. 

 

After our breakfast we left for Girabaldi Bay. Tom & Marcello have a boat and not only fish, but catch crab and oysters.

 

 

 

We hope to be back soon to see our friends and maybe do some fishing too.

Our next stop would be Sacramento, CA to stay with my sister Angela and her husband Bob.  Taking advantage of their proximity to vineyards we decided to do a bit of wine tasting.

 

The vines were so barren, a stark contrast to what they look like in the summer and fall.

 

 Our last stop at Boeger winery

 

Looks like they have plenty of wine for tasting!

Bob planned ahead and packed a picnic lunch for us. It was a bit chilly, but we enjoyed some cheese, crackers and ... wine at their picnic area.

 

Our stay was much too short, only one day. We are hoping that they venture north and stay with us soon. Oh by the way... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA!